Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi
by Melantha A
Summary: Harry Potter X Naruto Team 7 is given a mission to protect a fifteen year old boy in England but the hardest part of the assignment is to survive school... [SasuSaku]
1. A New Mission

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Okay, I know people don't really like long author's notes so I'll make this quick. Harry Potter/Naruto crossover, expect obsessive romances on the Naruto side. Sasuke/Sakura mostly. Set during HP book 5 and AU for Naruto. And a couple of times I copy things exactly from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Things like speeches, articles. Things that would throw the story off if changed. I put the MLA citation there, but I just wanted to mention it in advance. Don't get mad. looks sheepish Anyway, I hope you like it. Happy reading!

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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter. I'm not going to put this at the beginning of every chapter, so this one applies to the entire story.

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Chapter One:

A New Mission

"Are you sure these children will be sufficient?" Albus Dumbledore inquired of the Hokage. She nodded, still distracted by a form that had been burning a hole in her desk for several days.

"They are some of our best and they will be guided by a more that qualified jounin." Dumbledore nodded. Tsunade looked up at her newest client. "Is there anything else you need?" He shook his head.

"I shall be at just outside Konoha waiting for your team." Tsunade shook the elderly man's hand.

"Always good to see you." She said with a small smile. Dumbledore bowed and disapparated. Tsunade shook her head, laughing. "Their departures are always so…big." She cleared her throat and walked to the door, calling to her assistants. "Would somebody find me Kakashi?"

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As Tsunade was distractedly getting a new mission, Team 7 was lazing on the bridge, their teacher late as usual. The hour passed and after four Sakura was beginning to get worried.

"He's usually only about three hours late. Maybe something's wrong." She said to her unconcerned teammates. They stared at her.

"Come on, Kakashi sensei is probably just blowing time again. He's always late, forget it." Naruto went back to sleeping.

"Yeah, Sakura don't worry about it." Sasuke said with a small smirk. She smiled back and fell into silence. After another half an hour Kakashi 'poofed' onto the gate at the head of the bridge.

"Sorry I-"

"Got lost on the road of life?" The three answered for him. Kakashi sniggered.

"I have a good reason this time. Really." Sasuke turned to Sakura.

"See I told you everything would be okay." She smiled. Kakashi looked confused.

"What would be okay?" He asked the three.

"Sakura was worrying because you were later than usual." Naruto said loudly. "She thought something was wrong."

"Actually I was speaking to Tsunade about a new mission for us." They stared at their teacher. This was the first time one of his excuses were actually plausible. Sasuke recovered first.

"What was the mission?" He asked, breaking the silent hold on the other two.

"I was wondering when someone would ask that. It's a protection mission. We'll be traveling out of the country. Tsunade will give you all the details in a little while. I want you all to go home and pack. We could be at this for a few months so pack accordingly. Then meet me in the Hokage's office." Then Kakashi 'poofed' out and let the genin standing awestruck in the bright sunshine. They looked at each other and shrugged. It seemed that this mission would be quite unique.

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An hour later the three genin met their teacher and the Hokage in her office. She looked up from her paperwork and sighed. Without waiting for a greeting she launched into a description of the mission they were to embark upon.

"The three of you get to go back to school." She smirked at their groans. "You will be guarding a Harry Potter. Apparently there is a war going on and he is in the thick of it. But he is only fifteen and cannot protect himself against the opposing force. Neither can their dwindling numbers. All you have to do is watch out for him and make sure he doesn't get himself killed. Kakashi will be near if you need any help. Good luck." Taking this as a dismissal Kakashi ushered his students out of the office and onto the bright street.

"So when are we leaving for this mission?" Naruto asked.

"Right now."

"WHAT!" The three exclaimed. Kakashi chuckled softly.

"It may seem sudden but we have to get there before the school year starts." He smiled back at his shocked students. "Come on." He said beckoning to follow him. They started moving, exchanging a glance. Sakura decided to find out more about this unusual mission.

"Where is this school that Tsunade was talking about?" She asked.

"It's far to the northwest. In Europe." Kakashi answered without turning around. Sakura frowned.

"But how are we going to get there? We can't walk." Kakashi smiled.

"You'll just have to see." He said mysteriously. Sasuke frowned. He hated it when Kakashi was trying to be all mystifying like this. It was confusing and annoying. But he didn't say anything, preferring to turn over his misconceptions in private. He knew that complaining wouldn't get anywhere, and that Kakashi would never intentionally lead them to harm, so it there was no use wondering about where they were going. The genin followed in silence, only broken when they reached an older man just outside of the forest that bordered Konoha.

"You must be Kakashi." He said affably. "And our guards." Kakashi nodded.

"I assume you're Dumbledore." Kakashi said, shaking the elderly man's hand. "This is Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke." He said, indicating his students in turn. Dumbledore smiled down at them, and polite greetings were made. The genin did not speak much, choosing to allow Kakashi to make awkward small talk with Dumbledore. After an awkward five minutes Dumbledore sighed loudly.

"We should get going. I want to return to the school before nightfall and I'm sure that the children will want to get settled as soon as possible." Dumbledore said with another smile at the kids.

"Of course." Sakura still looked confused. "Is something wrong Sakura?" Kakashi asked, upon seeing her puzzled expression.

"It's just that…well how are we going to travel thousands of miles before nightfall. We couldn't even travel that distance in a month, let alone a few hours!"

"You know how to 'poof' right?" Kakashi asked her. She nodded. "Well that's all it is. Although it is over a significantly larger distance so I will have to help you. Sasuke and Sakura will come with me. Naruto, go with Dumbledore." Sasuke and Sakura moved next to Kakashi and grasped his hands. In a second a cloud of smoke appeared and the three disappeared. Naruto turned to Dumbledore.

"This better not hurt." He said, before taking Dumbledore's outstretched hand and disappearing into the growing darkness with an audible pop.


	2. Hogwarts, Wands, and the Train

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

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A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I don't think I've ever gotten that many reviews on a first chapter before! I'll try to remember what questions people had so I can clear some things up. I probably won't have any pairings on the Harry Potter side of the story, mainly because I've never felt any passion towards pairings in the books. And the whole 'poof' thing at the end of the last chapter-I cheated. I just needed a way to get them to England in a very short amount of time so I sort of invented the 'poof' thing. Sorry! I can't remember anything else, but just ask if you have any other questions. Oh, and I forgot to mention it last chapter, but I do not accept flames. If you don't like the story, just don't read it. All flames serve to do is peck away at my self-confidence and delay the publishing of future chapters because I am so nervous that people will hate it. So if you want frequent updates encourage your friends not to flame! What I do welcome with open arms is constructive criticism. But it should be a good point and not be stated in a mean way. One last thing before I shut up. This chapter…some characters…may get…OOC. Sorry. There's an explanation in a later chapter. Happy Reading!

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Chapter Two:

Hogwarts, Wands, and the Train

Some time later Sasuke was exploring his new living quarters. The three had been placed in Gryffindor so they could be closer to Harry during the school year. He had abandoned Naruto in the dorms in favor of some peace and quiet. He smiled slightly when he found Sakura walking down the stairs that led to the girl's dorm.

"Going to explore?" He asked, knowing that Sakura's curious manner would not allow her to do anything but. She smiled.

"Oh, of course. But this castle's so big, I'm not sure I'll be able to poke my way around tonight." Sasuke nodded.

"We might get lost." Sasuke said, smiling a bit broader. "Let's go, maybe with two people it will be easier to find our way back." The pair walked side by side out the portrait hole and down into the labyrinth that was Hogwarts. They were silent for a while, but it was not awkward as many silences were.

"What do you think about this?" Sakura asked after a while. "We have been told almost nothing about the mission. I'm not sure I like going into such a dangerous mission blindly." Sasuke shook his head.

"I suppose we just have to trust Kakashi sensei. I don't like being so in the dark either, but I don't think Kakashi would deliberately lead us into a situation that's over our heads." Sakura looked down.

"I know. It's just…I wish we were trusted enough with the details of the mission. Sometimes I feel like Kakashi sensei is asking for all our trust, and giving us none in return." Sasuke visibly stiffened.

"Maybe he's just trying to protect us. Have you ever thought of that?" He practically shouted at her.

"Sasuke I-"

"Sometimes having an open mind going into mission is a good thing. Maybe you are the one who withholds trust." Sasuke started stalking away. Sakura reached out and grabbing his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

"I'm sorry. I know, I'm just nervous." Sasuke nodded, silently forgiving her. They continued walking, this time the silence as awkward as silences come. "I had no idea you cared about Kakashi sensei so much." Sakura said after the tension between the two had faded a little.

"Yeah, well he's the closest thing to a non homicidal older brother that I've ever had. Sometimes I feel like he's the only one who understands me. You and Naruto come close," He said when Sakura opened her mouth in protest. "But Kakashi sensei comes closer. Sorry for snapping at you." He said, studying his feet.

"Don't worry about it. I understand." A blush crept for no reason across Sakura's cheeks and she quickly attempted to subdue it. But she was too late. Sasuke saw and smiled, trying not to laugh. "What are you laughing at?" Sakura said, her hands covering her cheeks.

"Nothing!" He said, obviously chuckling. Sakura looked at him disbelievingly. "You're blushing." He said, through laughter.

"Its really not funny." Sakura said, although she was smiled at Sasuke's expression of an emotion that was not anger, sadness, or raw determination. She was extremely happy that Sasuke's laughter was not out of spite or power. When she got her face under control, she examined their surroundings. "Where are we?" She said, realizing they were hopelessly lost.

"I have no idea." Sasuke said, looking nervous.

"We should start walking. Soon something will have to look familiar." They chose a hall to walk down and started moving. Halfway down the hall their hands suddenly collided, but instead of pulling away Sasuke wrapped his fingers around Sakura's. Her cheeks warmed as she blushed again, and looking up, she found that Sasuke's face was also turning a fair shade of red.

After quite a bit of time wandering around, Sasuke and Sakura finally found their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Naruto and Kakashi were waiting for them.

"Where have you been?" Kakashi asked sternly. Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance.

"We were having a look around and we got lost." Sakura answered, confused at her normally laid back teacher's sudden strict tone.

"Just be careful. You're out of your element." Kakashi beckoned for them to sit. They did. "Now, that you've decided to return I have to leave. I'm just here to give you your final instructions. The students will arrive tomorrow. You three will accompany the train back to the station to pick up the students." He handed them each a picture of Harry. "Stick close to him. You will go to school as normal students. Pretend to be foreign exchange students, and don't tell anyone your true identities. Go to Dumbledore if you have any questions. I'll meet every Friday at ten in his office to get your report. And if there is any problem and you need me go to any one of the teachers and they will contact me for you. Good luck." He said standing to leave.

"Wait!" The genin said at the same time. Kakashi raised his eyebrows at them.

"You're just going to leave us?" Naruto shouted.

"What if we are attacked and there is no time to find a teacher?" Sakura asked frowning. Sasuke remained silent, his eyes demanding an answer from Kakashi. He sighed.

"Everything will be fine. I'll be close so if you are attacked and unable to find one of the teachers just send up a signal of some kind and I'll find you. Now I'll see you on Friday." He said, 'poofing' out of the common room. The genin were left staring blankly at the wall where Kakashi had stood a moment before. The looked at each other, looking nervous.

"I guess we should go to bed. It's almost midnight." Sakura said quietly. Sasuke still didn't say anything, only stood up abruptly and stalked up the stairs to the boy's room. Naruto shrugged at Sakura and followed him. Sakura sighed and turned to climb her own stairs. She looked around the unfamiliar room with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Something told her that this was going to be a long mission.

The next morning they met a Professor McGonagall at the Entrance hall. The gazed up at the gothic vaulting ceiling with awe. The austere professor brought them back to earth.

"You have been ordered to pose as fifth years, although you are far younger than the average fifth year student. Given your skill levels the class work will not be a problem but we will have to think up an excuse for your age." She handed them each a schedule, then a stack of clothes.

"What are these for?" Naruto asked, his usual loudmouthed self.

"Uniforms." McGonagall said flatly.

"Oh, black." Naruto moaned. Sakura glared at him and examined her own uniform.

"Stop complaining Naruto they are not that bad." She said, with another scathing glare. McGonagall ignored their exchange.

"Change into your uniforms and I'll take you down to the train." She said, leaving them alone for the moment. After a few minutes the boys reentered the hall, making fun of each other. They were each dressed in dark gray pants and white collared shirts. A black sweater covered most of the shirt as well as the gold and red ties that were customary of Gryffindor House.

"HA! You look like such a dork Sasuke." Naruto said upon sight of Sasuke in the uniform. Sasuke smirked evilly at Naruto.

"Have you caught sight of yourself yet? Well, when you do I don't think you'll have anything to say about me in these clothes." Sasuke spoke the truth. Naruto looked worse than Sasuke, since he normal wore such bright colors. Namely, orange. Sasuke always wore dark hues so the black sweater and collared white shirt brought of Sasuke's gothic good looks. The boys were about the start a physical altercation when Sakura returned to the Great Hall.

"How do I look?" She asked, tugging of the edge of the skirt. Dark burgundy knee socks came to the top of her knees, ending at the bottom in black lace up boots. Her sweater was black as well, but more of a V-neck and she did not wear a tie. Instead and red and gold ribbon was holding back her hair in place of her hitai-ate. The remainder of her team was speechless. She made them look _terrible._

"W-wow, Sakura." Naruto said staring at her. "You're so pretty." Sakura smiled.

"Thanks Naruto. You too, Sasuke." She said, the final sentence under her breath. Sasuke didn't say anything, but his awed expression was enough to convince Sakura that he liked what he saw. She cleared her throat after a moment's glance at her feet. Returning her glance to her teammates she noticed something that would be a problem. "Guys. Your hitai-ate. We can't wear them around school. They would give away our cover." The two placed their hands protectively on the symbolic headbands.

"There is no way I'm going to give up this headband for the entire year!" Naruto shouted. "Do you have any idea what I went through to get this?"

"I don't really like the idea of giving it up either, but Sakura's right. If anyone here knows ninja legend, they will figure us out in a second. And you must remember what Kakashi-sensei said. We can't be figured out." Sasuke moved swiftly and untied the blue knot. Naruto still looked like he was going to protest, but he ultimately surrendered in the name of salvaging the mission. Sasuke put his in Sakura's outstretched hand. After a brief moment of hesitation Naruto placed his on top of the other two's.

"What should we do with them?" Sasuke asked as Professor McGonagall entered the hall. The other two shrugged unsure of the risk of keeping them in their dorms.

"Well, you all look lovely." She said, attempting to make the shinobi more comfortable. Sakura still held their hitai-ate's in her hand. "Oh, your teacher told me to take those from you. He'll hold on to them until you are able to reveal your true identities to the rest of the student body." Sakura reluctantly handed them to the imposing woman, wincing as she roughly stuck them in the folds of her cloak. "I almost forgot, you need your wands."

"Wands?" Sakura repeated. McGonagall nodded.

"Yes. Wizards use wands in performing their magic so to fit in Professor Dumbledore had these specially made for you." She handed them each a long piece of mahogany wood. "These are almost like normal wands, but have been modified to allow you to use your…ah…chakra to perform spells. All you have to do is say the spell and release a constant stream of power into the wand. You'll have to try it out later. We can't be late to pick up the other students." She walked away briskly, and the three genin had to jog slightly to keep up with her.

A little while later McGonagall saw them onto the train.

"Now make sure you sit with Harry and get to know him. You'll have to hang out with him for the entire year, so I would advise that you get along. Good luck." The three nodded sharply and boarded the train. A plump woman helped them up the large gap between the platform and the car.

"This is nice, we never have passengers on the way to London. Welcome aboard, children."

"Thanks." Sakura said with a respectful smile. They entered a compartment at the front of the train and settled in for the long ride to London. Naruto yawned.

"I'm going back to bed. It's too early to be awake." Sakura raised her eyebrows at him.

"You and Sasuke had enough energy to fight back there." She said, silently scolding them for arguing less than five minutes into this assignment. Naruto shrugged and lay down on the bench, forcing Sasuke up.

"Ug, you are still a loser." He said as he crossed the compartment and sat down next to Sakura. "What are we supposed to do on this train ride?" He wondered aloud, glancing around the compartment.

"Well I brought a couple books that Kakashi lent me about the school, if you want." Sakura said, pulling two heavy leather-bound books out of her shoulder bag. "They're not that interesting but they are informative and we need all the help we can get learning about this school." She handed Sasuke one of the books and opened a volume entitled Hogwarts, A History. The binding cracked as she opened it, which was odd since it was a library book. It seemed that no one ever read this particular book. She mentally shrugged it off and started with the introduction. Sasuke examined his own book. It was a dark looking manuscript, titled A History of You Know Who and How He Was Stopped. _Tsh, Long title._ He thought, wondering what this book had to do with their mission. His inhibitions were scattered when he turned to the back cover and found Harry Potter's name in the summary. He opened the volume with new interest and dove into it the world around him fading away.

Several hours later the train pulled into King's Cross station. Sasuke awoke with a start. He rubbed his eyes and picked the book up off the ground. He was more tired than he thought, and the book was not interesting resulting in a quick knock out. Sasuke found Sakura closing her book and Naruto still sleeping.

"Where are we?" He asked, noticing the vastly different view out the window. He could see hundreds of students milling on the platform.

"We're in London. I was about to wake you so we could find Harry." Sakura stood up and crossed the compartment to awaken Naruto. Sasuke massaged his neck, attempting to relieve the tension caused by sleeping sitting up for several hours. Sakura poked Naruto.

"Come on, Sakura, leave me alone." Naruto moaned and attempted to bat her arm away.

"Naruto! We have a job to do!" She said, whacking him on the head. He sat up, massaging the bruise that Sakura had just bestowed upon his cranium.

"You didn't have to hit me that hard." He said with a glare at the kunoichi. She shrugged.

"You deserved it." She said taking Sasuke's book and returning it to her bag. Sasuke stood up and the three left the train to find Harry. Sakura took out the picture of Harry. The boys crowded around her studying the picture.

"There." Sasuke said, pointing across the mass of students. Sakura pocketed the photograph and they pushed their way through the crowd to get closer to Harry. He was standing with a large family, all with red hair, a girl with bushy brown hair, and a large black dog. They couldn't hear what he was saying over the noise of the crowd, but it seemed like it was a serious conversation with one of the red heads and the brown haired girl. After a moment of arguing the children said good bye to their parents and started towards the train. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto quickly followed the other three down the platform and back on the train. They kept their distance, seeing where Harry would go next. He had a quick, tense, awkward conversation with his friends and they departed. He and a younger (than Harry. Older than the genin) red haired girl entered one of the last empty compartments. As the door slid shut the genin walked briskly down to it. Sakura took a deep breath and slid the door back.

"Hey. Can we sit here? Everywhere else is full." She said with a warm smile. The red head smiled.

"Of course!" She said, indicating the seats opposite her. "First years?" She asked, considering their ages and the fact that she had never seen them before. Sakura shook her head.

"Actually we're exchange students. We'll be in fifth year." The red head raised her eyebrows. Harry looked on in interest, but did not engage in the conversation.

"We're very advanced." Naruto said, loudly with his normal excited smile.

"Oh." The witch said, looking sort of disappointed that kids younger than her could be in a level above her. "Well, I'm Ginny and this is Harry. He'll be in classes with you. Judging by your uniforms you must be in Gryffindor." Sakura nodded.

"My name's Sakura. This is Naruto and Sasuke." She said.

"Where are you from?" Ginny asked, in the interest of making small talk. Sakura mentally swore. They never thought much about their cover story, but in retrospect they definitely should have.

"Um, it's sort of a secret school. We're not allowed to tell anyone where it is." Sasuke said, thinking quickly. Sakura let out a quiet breath, relieved that they weren't discovered in the first minutes of the mission. They five made some more awkward small talk, most Harry and Ginny giving the shinobi advice about surviving Hogwarts. Sakura knew most of it from devouring Hogwarts, A History on the way there. Upon discovery of this fact, Harry laughed.

"Oh, Hermione will love you!" He said, chuckling. Sakura looked confused.

"Why is that?" She asked, unsure who Hermione even is.

"Because she's probably the only other person in the entire school who has read that book. You two will get along great. She's a bit of a book worm." Sakura looked a little offended.

"I'm not a book worm." She said indignant. Naruto started laughing.

"Ah, Sakura yeah you are! You always aced every test at our old school." He said, cracking up. Sakura looked really mad at him until Sasuke laid a hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry to say this, but you sort of are." He flinched at her furious expression. "Not that that's a bad thing." Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, cuz you're a book worm too!" Sasuke whacked him.

"Shut up, loser." Sakura put herself between her frequently feuding teammates.

"Guys. Mission. Do this later." She hissed, her whispers inaudible to the staring wizards across the compartment. Sasuke and Naruto sulked into opposite corners, each forfeiting the ongoing fight for now. "Sorry, they always fight like this, don't worry about it." She said with a smile. Fortunately the wizards dismissed the incident as normal school-mate rivalry. The conversation moved on and Sakura inwardly sighed again. The most difficult part of this assignment was turning out to be keeping their secret. A while later the five were joined again by the two from earlier. The genin were introduced to Ron and Hermione, the infamous book worm. Sakura had to go through their story again, trying to be careful to keep every aspect the same. She suspected that any variance in the tale would light a red flame in these wizards' mind. Hermione's reputation as a bookworm made Sakura suspect that that red flame would be fed by her research and turn into a roaring fire that would destroy the shinobi's cover.

"So where did you say you were from?" Hermione asked.

"It's a secret." Naruto responded. Sakura glanced at him nervously, hoping that it didn't show on her face. But Naruto managed to keep a conversation up without giving away their cover. Sakura sat back and let her end of the conversation fall silent. She was starting to feel the effects of the late night and early awakening. She hadn't slept on the way to London as her teammates did, but now she wished she had. Just before she was going to close her eyes Hermione started a conversation with her again.

"So, you're obviously in Gryffindor but what year are you? You must be first years, although you would have been introduced as first years instead of transfer students." Sakura sighed.

"We'll be placed in fifth year." Hermione looked surprised.

"Wow! Sorry, it's just, you look so young. I thought you were no more than twelve."

"We are twelve. The curriculum in our school is different than your school so our twelve year olds are equal to your fifteen year olds. No offense." Sasuke answered. Hermione looked a little taken aback, surprised that she could be bested by mere twelve year olds. Sasuke kept up the conversation with Hermione and Sakura again leaned back and closed her eyes. But before she could replenish any energy at all they were interrupted again.

"Hanging out with first years, Potter?" An icy, bitter voice said above their heads. Sakura opened her eyes with a groan.

"Actually they're advanced transfer students, Malfoy." Harry's voice answered coldly. Everyone was sitting in a tense silence.

"They're still new. And maybe they don't want to be around failures like you. My name's Draco Malfoy and this is Crabbe and Goyle. " The blonde boy said to the genin, indicating the two goons behind him. "If you truly are advance students, I would suggest that you stop associating yourselves with failures like them. I can be of much more use to you than them. Why don't you come with us and we can fill you in on the real hierarchy of the school." Naruto almost instantly got red in the face.

"So you think we need your 'advice'. You know, you never asked what we wanted. I guess I'll tell you. I, personally, hate bullies like you. You are just another spoiled rich kid who has no real power, but surrounds himself by brainless, big boned bodyguards to create an illusion of strength. But you have none. And your little sidekicks don't have any either. I could take them on in a second." Sakura poked him sharply in the back. He stopped his rant. "Now, get the hell out of here." Malfoy looked indignant.

"Fine, but you have made a huge mistake, one that you will live to regret." He stalked out of the compartment. Naruto looked around at the other passengers.

"What?" He asked. Sakura was throwing daggers in her stare at him, Sasuke was chuckling softly to himself, and the wizards were looking at him like he was a god. "Was that…out of the ordinary?" He asked, confused at their expressions.

"That was so cool." Ron said, still looking in awe at the blonde ninja.

"I don't think anyone's ever stood up to Malfoy like that." Harry said with an amazed smile. Hermione looked nervous though.

"Maybe you shouldn't have done that. Malfoy will probably try to retaliate somehow. I would be careful in the future." The three shinobi shrugged.

"I think we can handle ourselves." Sasuke said. Sakura gave him a slight glare.

"But-you're only twelve. Even if you are advanced in magic, Crabbe and Goyle don't use magic to fight. And they are way bigger than you are." It was Sakura's turn to attempt to assuage Hermione's misconceptions.

"Don't worry about it." She said, dismissing the conversation. Hermione still looked a little troublesome, but Sakura refused to elaborate and the compartment fell into a tense silence.

"We should get changed. We'll probable arrive at the castle soon." Hermione said quietly. She gathered her belongings and left the compartment to change. The rest of the wizards followed her.

"Be right back." Harry said to the shinobi. The three sat still. After a minute, Naruto spoke up.

"Should we follow them?" He asked, glancing out the window.

"No, I think they'll be fine. I can't sense anything out of the ordinary on the train." Sasuke said, his eyes closed in concentration. Sakura nodded in agreement.

"We should also give them a little space, or they'll get suspicious. That Hermione already suspects something. We all need to be a bit more careful around her. I think she'll be the first to poke a hole in our cover." They all agreed and fell back into silence.

Across the hall Hermione and Ginny were changing into their uniforms. Hermione frowned.

"Do you find something odd about those exchange students?" She asked the younger girl. Ginny shrugged.

"I don't know. They are different, but I assume that's because they're from a different culture. We'll get to know them better." She reasoned. But Hermione couldn't shake the feeling that these new comers had an agenda that was not limited to learning about new cultures. She vowed to herself to watch them carefully, and find out what they are hiding.


	3. A Feast and A Fight

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: I'm sorry for the space between updates, but you should expect that it will take at least a week for new chapters to be posted. First of all is the evil reason: When you update the story shoots to the top of story lists and more people come across it. The not-so-evil reason: I want to space out the updates so I won't run out of chapters. I've been on a Charmed kick so I haven't written any new chapters so I'm trying to stretch out the life of the chapters currently written. And finally the completely understandable reason: I lost my USB thumb drive and didn't have any more blank disks, so I couldn't get the chapter from my laptop to the desktop. (The only computer with internet) So really sorry. Thanks for all the reviews! I've never had so many for the first couple chapters ever before. I hope you continue enjoying my story. Oh and in this chapter, Umbridge's speech is taken directly from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It is correctly cited in MLA format. So I'm not professing to have written it, please don't sue me! Happy Reading!

Chapter 3:

The Feast and a Fight

"Before we depart for our warm beds, I, as usual, have a few announcements." Dumbledore said to the mass of students in the great hall after the start of term feast. "First of all I would like to extend welcome to three exchange students from the South. I'm sure you will all be courteous to our guests." He said with a smile. It seemed that everyone turned to look at the Gryffindor table, whispers spreading among the crowd. Sakura's face turned bright red, a side effect of having bright similarly colored hair. Dumbledore cleared his throat to silence the whispers. The hall returned its attention to the headmaster. "On behalf of Mr. Filch, our caretaker, I would like to remind everyone that magic is prohibited in the corridors between classes. And that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to everyone. That includes some of our senior students. And now to the staff announcements. It seems I have to do this every year." He said with a laugh and a twinkle in his eye. "We are pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will take over our Care of Magical Creatures class. And I would like to introduce Professor Umbridge, our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

The students applauded politely, if unenthusiastically. Dumbledore continued with a few uninteresting announcements. Naruto stared at the ceiling, still amazed by the spectacular stars that mimicked the night sky. He returned his gaze to the headmaster when he abruptly stopped talking. Umbridge was standing, clearing her throat. It was obvious that she intended to address the students. Dumbledore consented by sitting down and turning his attention to the stout woman. Many of the staff looked shocked, and the students looked like they were about to laugh at her.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Umbridge said in a high childish voice. "for those kind words of welcome." Sakura got a bad feeling from her. She exchanged a glance with her teammates, and leaned close to Hermione.

"Do new teachers always make a speech?" She asked. Hermione just shook her head, looking a little shell shocked. She was paying rapt attention to the speech, her expression darkening as she absorbed the words. Sakura turned her attention back to Umbridge, curious as to what made Hermione's expression so contemplative.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!" Sasuke looked around. No one was smiling. "I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!" Sasuke's mouth twitched. He didn't like this woman, she irritated him. He didn't like being treated as a child when he was in fact an adult shinobi_. I guess I'll have to get used to it_. He thought with a sigh.

Sakura was listening to the speech with a growing interest. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching." Sakura noticed that the teachers were looking positively venomous. "Every Headmaster and Headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress these will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tired and tested traditions often requite no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited." (1) At this point Umbridge smiled at them and sank back into her seat. Scattered applause broke out, mostly polite teachers and students who were only happy to see the dull speech end.

Harry, Ron and Hermione bent their heads together and spoke in a whisper inaudible to everyone else. Sakura turned to her own friends.

"What do you think that was supposed to mean?" She asked. The boys shrugged. Sasuke looked contemplative.

"She mentioned something about the Ministry of Magic. I think that's their government, so maybe it has something to do with politics." Sakura nodded.

"It seemed as if she was talking about making changes to the school." Naruto looked confused.

"How did you guys pay attention to that entire speech? I got lost after the first sentence." Sasuke smirked.

"It was easy we have attention spans longer than a second and the more brains than a retarded monkey."

"WHAT!" Naruto almost shouted at him. Sakura poked him in the ribs.

"Quiet. It's not the best time to be fighting. Anyways, I don't think this woman will jeopardize the mission in anyway. We should be fine if we stay out of her way." Sakura turned away just as Dumbledore dismissed them. The students stood up and started towards the enormous doors that led out of the Great Hall. "But I still want to ask Kakashi sensei about her on Friday." Sakura looked around for their target. Hermione and Ron had to guide the first years to the tower, leaving the genin alone with Harry.

"Oh!" He exclaimed when he saw them standing there waiting on him. "I forgot, you guy probably don't know where the tower is." Sakura nodded.

"We know the general direction, but his castle's so big we've gotten lost every time we've ventured out." Sakura ended the sentence abruptly. She realized that she may have given away an important piece of information but fortunately, Harry was distracted and did not press her. They walked up the tall stone stairways, weaving through passages. Sakura was glad they had Harry to guide them, as she was sure that they would have been lost in minutes. But Harry seemed moody, staring at the floor. People parted for them as they passed, and stared. But not at the newcomers as one would expect, but at Harry. The three exchanged a look. After twisting and turning passages lit by unwavering, yet unmistakably, candles they found themselves looking at a large portrait of a fat lady, dressed in a bulging pink dress.

"Password?" She asked regally, as if she were a painting of a queen. Harry looked at her, then blushed.

"Er…" He scratched the back of his neck realizing that he had no clue to what the password was. The genin knew it, but were unwilling to give it away since it would reveal that they had not actually come on the train, as they were pretending.

"I cannot permit entrance without a password." The lady said, turning away. Harry sighed, unsure of what he was going to do.

"Hey, Harry!" A boyish voice called at them. It belonged to a round faced, nerdy looking boy who was currently jogging down the hall towards them with a plant cradled in his arms. "Do you need the password? It's mimbulus mimbletonia." He said waving the plant. The portrait slid open.

"Oh, thanks Neville." Harry said. "Guys, this is Neville Longbottom. Neville this is Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto." The three nodded at Neville, and they all climbed through the portrait hole.

"So are you guys first years?" Neville asked when they stood in the common room. Naruto, tired of answering the same question over and over again, irritably responded.

"No, transfers."

"Oh." Neville said, sounding surprised.

"What's up with the plant?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes at the ugly vine. Sakura poked him, irritated by his tactlessness. Neville was undeterred.

"It's a mimbulus mimbletonia. Like our password." He grinned foolishly. "It was an early birthday present. This vine has one of the strongest defense systems of any plant!" Neville spewed into a long lecture about the mimbulus mimbletonia and its characteristics. Fortunately the unwilling students in Neville's herbology course were saved by the arrival of Ron and Hermione. On the pretext of being exhausted, Hermione led Sakura towards the girl's dorm while Harry and Ron led Sasuke and Naruto up to the boy's dorm. Upon arrival in the tower room, Sasuke and Naruto were introduced to Seamus, a moody looking Irish boy, and Dean, a black, amiable looking boy.

"Hey, welcome to Hogwarts mate!" Dean said, with a wide smile and a handshake. Seamus barely acknowledged them and returned to unpacking his socks.

"What's up with you Seamus?" Ron called across the room, confused at the normally friendly wizard's icy mood.

"Oh, don't mind him. His mom didn't want him coming back to Hogwarts this year, and he's a little mad about…other stuff." Seamus slammed his drawer shut, and whirled around.

"It's not that I'm mad, I'm just…okay, fine I'm mad. I mean, how can you guys believe that You-Know-Who is back? It's completely impossible!" Harry tensed.

"Yeah? So you think I'm disturbed too, huh?" He said poison lacing his manner. Ron took a step towards Harry.

"Why don't we all just take a breath?" He said, trying to ease the tension in the room. Sasuke and Naruto stood in the shadows, watching the exchange.

"Yeah, I think you're completely mad!"

"Then why don't you just stuff it up your ass!" Harry shouted at him. Seamus got into bed and flung the curtains around the bed, blocking him from view. Dean didn't speak either. He got into bed, but gently shut the curtains, instead of slamming them. Ron sighed, tired. But the genin were not about to let this exchange drop without questions.

"What was that about?" Sasuke asked at the same time as Naruto blurted out, "Why are you insane?" Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and decided that they were trustworthy enough to know the details of last year's attack.

"Last year Hogwarts hosted a tournament," Harry found himself relating the entire story of the Triwizard Tournament. He always thought that telling this story would be hard, after the initial paralyzing shock had wore off and he had enough time to think about the meaning of the events. But as the words fell out of his mouth, he found that it was almost soothing to have the words float into the air.

"And then I ran to the cup and was transported back to the grounds." He stopped talking. Naruto and Sasuke stared at him, unsure of how to react to this news.

"Wow." Sasuke said, looking blankly at the floor thinking. "Wow."

"And so, this Voldemort is the most powerful wizard in the known world. And he wants you dead." Harry nodded.

"You don't believe me, do you?" He said sadly.

"No, we believe you." Sasuke said, looking at Naruto with raised eyebrows. "Shit, I really wish it weren't true though."

(1) Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2003.


	4. The First Day of Classes

A/N: OMG! IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!! Sorry for the very, very, very long wait before updates. There was a bit of a war going on in my house over the computer with the internet. I only had it on Wednesday nights, when I watched the new episode of Standoff, and Friday nights when I caught up on my forums and talked on AIM. And I lost my flash drive again. But for Christmas my parents got me a wireless internet router, so I can add chapters from my laptop! Yay! And thanks so much for everyone who kept reviewing despite the long wait and hopefully never stopped believing that there would be a new chapter. Thank you! Happy Reading!

Chapter 4

The First Day of Classes

The next morning Sasuke awoke with the sun. He poked Naruto awake quietly, dressed and went down to the common room. Sakura stood waiting for him, sunbeams hitting her pink hair and casting a cherry shadow on her face. She smiled as he came down the stairs, yet her face fell as he did not smile back.

"What is it?" She asked, concerned. Sasuke sighed deeply.

"You were right. Kakashi didn't tell us something." He told her the story of the Triwizard tournament, and how Harry was actually the target of the most powerful wizard of all time. He was with a sinking feeling in his stomach as Sakura face fell, doubt clearly portrayed on her features.

"So, this mission is a bit higher classed than we expected." She said, looking a little worried. Sasuke nodded.

"All that means is we have to be extra careful." He smiled as Naruto stumbled down the stairs, still half asleep. "And that we can give Kakashi hell the next time we see him." Sakura giggled.

"What are we laughing at?" Naruto said groggily.

"Oh, nothing." Sasuke said, with a smirk at his teammate. Harry and Ron came down the stairs, just as Hermione stepped onto the landing. Ron yawned.

"Breakfast, anyone?"

Twenty minutes of confusing passages later, the six sat down at the long Gryffindor table. After digging into breakfast, Sasuke asked the wizards some other questions about Hogwarts.

"So, what's up with the houses? We heard a little about it in the song last night, but I'm sensing some tension between a couple of houses." He asked with a knowing glance towards the Slytherin table.

"Some would call it tension." Harry said with a small laugh.

"Others would call it war." Ron said through a mouthful of food. Hermione scoffed at them over her book.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth? Didn't you ever learn manners?" She sounded stressed, and term hadn't even started yet.

"Hermione," Ron asked when he swallowed the egg in his mouth. "How are you already studying? We don't have any homework." Everyone turned to stare at the bushy hair, as most of Hermione's body was hidden behind her book.

"It's never too late to start studying for our OWLs." She said, returning to the thick volume. Ron stared at her.

"Oh, please. Those aren't until June. We have plenty of time." Hermione snapped her book shut.

"Are you even serious about this?" She asked shrilly. "These are the most important tests of our lives. If we don't pass, our lives will be completely ruined!"

"Aw, don't worry about it, Hermione." A red-haired boy that Sakura recognized from yesterday at the train station said as he sat on the empty bench next to Hermione. An identical boy sat down on her other side.

"We didn't do so well, but I don't think our lives our going to come to nothing." He sat with a grin at the stressful girl.

"Stressing is for people who care." Hermione looked indignant and started reading again. The shinobi were introduced to Ron's older brothers, Fred and George, identical twin pranksters. "And we don't." Fred concluded. The genin didn't either. Since they weren't really studying at this school, passing the tests meant absolutely nothing to them.

"Yeah, you guys barely passed." Ron said into his food. George smiled.

"Yes, but we believe that grades aren't everything."

"And if you will excuse us, there is Lee, and we have business to discuss." The twins left them to congregate with another seventh year down the table.

"They seem like my kind of person." Naruto said with a smirk. "I've always liked a good prank." Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes.

"Yes, at the expense of us all." Sakura said, remembering all the times Naruto had made their Academy class stay after because of his countless jokes.

"Good Lord, I don't think we can take another prankster like the Weasley twins." Professor McGonagall said from above their heads. She gave each of the surprised students a schedule. As Ron complained about his first day, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder.

"Hey, we have the same schedule." He said before he realized that that was on purpose. Ron checked it out.

"Yeah, cool. That's good, you won't get lost." Harry checked the other shinobi's schedules and discovered that they were the same. Something was suspicious about that, but he decided not to mention it, and wrote it off as a coincidence.

"We should get to potions before Snape gets too mad." Harry said, standing up. The rest of the group stood and followed Harry. In seconds Sakura was glad that they had the same schedules. Every hallway looked the same, and if she were alone she would never had made it to class. The entered a dank dungeon and stood waiting for their teacher to arrive and unlock the door.

"So, is potions…fun?" Naruto asked with a glance at the depressing setting. Ron laughed.

"Yeah right. Snape is venomous and makes the class so difficult it will be a wonder if any of us pass." He said, silencing when Snape walked into the hall, briskly letting the class into the lab.

"Ah, we have the new students in our class today. Why don't you sit up front, where I can watch you." He said glaring down at them. The three obeyed the sharp teacher's orders and sat at the table directly in front of the teacher's desk.

"I don't think I like this guy." Naruto whispered in Sasuke's ear.

"Shut up, loser. We need to keep all the teachers on our side. We could need them at anytime." Naruto shut up at the glare from Sakura.

"Why don't we test our new student's skills?" Snape said. A chuckle rang out behind them. The genin turned to see Malfoy and his goons smirking evilly at them. Snape stood directly in front of their desk, tapping it lightly to return their attention. "So, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to and infusion of wormwood?" He looked at them as if he didn't expect anything from the three. Sakura smiled.

"The Draught of Living Death, a sleeping potion." She was smiling. Snape's face fell at her correct answer.

"Where would you look for a bezoar?" He said, more sharply.

"A goat's stomach." This time it was Sasuke who answered the question correctly. Naruto flicked his eyes back and forth between his teammates. He had no idea how they knew the answer's to the potion master's queries. Harry looked at them, also surprised. He recognized the questions that Snape asked him on the first day of classes, but he never expected twelve year olds who weren't Hermione to know this. In truth, only Sakura knew the answers. But to give her teammate a chance at keeping Snape on their side she mouthed the answer to Sasuke when Snape's back was turned. Sasuke was used to copying movements because of the Sharingan, so it was simple for him to ready her lips and mimic the motions with his own mouth. She wasn't sure how she was going to get Naruto's attention to give him the answer. Before she could poke him, Snape asked the final question, this time looking directly at Naruto.

"What's the difference between monkshood and wolfs bane?" Snape grinned manically at Naruto's confused expression. _They're the same thing, the same thing!_ Sakura thought frantically.

"Um…..I don't know!" Naruto said at long last. Snape's smile widened.

"Well, at least we have two worthy students." He said, looking directly at Naruto. He turned back to the chalkboard and waved his wand. A recipe formed on the board. "Follow these instructions exactly, and you can't fail. I will collect your final products at the end of the period. The class began working on the potion. Sakura found that it was easy. She quickly completed her potion and, while Snape was bullying Harry at the back of the room, helped Naruto through the last steps of his. It wasn't the exact shade of royal blue that hers and Sasuke's were but it was close and would suffice. Snape walked back to the front of the classroom. "Bottle the contents of your cauldron and place it on my desk. Then you are dismissed." The genin placed their labeled samples on Snape's desk and met Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the back of the classroom.

"I'm impressed!" Hermione said, as they reached her. "I guess you really are fifth years." Sakura smiled at the witch.

"You guys did better than I did." Ron said with a glance towards the front at his own, ash gray potion. Harry followed his glance and his shoulders drooped when he caught sight of his acid green potion. Hermione's was the perfect shade of royal blue.

Looking discouraged Harry and Ron led the genin up to the main castle and up more stairs to the tall divination tower. Hermione left them, going off to her arthimancy class. On their way up a final flight of stairs, Harry warned them about divination.

"Professor Trelawney is a complete fraud. She enjoys predicting my early death." Harry was smiling as if Trelawney was the most amusing teacher in the school.

"She also likes to predict new student's death, so don't get freaked out. No one she has said would die have died yet. Actually if you look at it, she's probably extending your life." Ron reasoned with a sneer. Harry laughed.

"Then, I'm going to live forever." Harry said smiling. Naruto shrugged.

"I've never believed in all this predestination and predicting the future crap. I've always thought it was stupid."

"I don't really believe in it either, it was just meant to be an easy elective, since we had to take one." Harry responded.

"Yeah, it's really just an easy A. Even though, since we're failing, it has become a complete joke." Ron said just as the reached the top of the stairs and the rope ladder that led to the divination classroom. Each of them ascended the ladder, Harry leading, followed by Ron, then Naruto, and Sasuke and Sakura bringing up the rear. They sat at a table in the back.

"It's hot in here." Sakura said breathily. Harry nodded.

"It's always like that in here. Trelawney apparently likes it like this." As the final syllable left Harry's lips Trelawney herself appeared from the far side of the room. She swept in, looking like a large insect. Shawls draped over her thin form, rings encircling each of her knobby fingers. Round glasses made her eyes larger than normal, completing the imagery of an insect.

"She does look eccentric." Sakura whispered to Sasuke. He suppressed a laugh at the professor's wild appearance. Her sharp ears picked up the noise and she swept over to their table, looking slightly surprised upon seeing new students.

"Ah, I see my prediction of a larger number has come to fruition. I knew that we would be joined this term by new students. Welcome to divination, my children." Trelawney smiled at them and turned back to the rest of the class. "This term we will be starting crystal balls. You each have one on your table. Get a partner and gaze into the fog within the glass." Sasuke and Sakura paired up, and Naruto formed a trio with Harry and Ron.

After five minutes of staring into the fog Sasuke was fed up.

"This is stupid, there is nothing to see." He said to Sakura. She turned her head, looking at the fog from a 45 degree angle. She had to agree with Sasuke.

"It's only fog." She said sitting back in her chair. Trelawney was walking among the other students and saw their frustration.

"Now lets just see." She said, turning their sphere. "Oh, dear. I see hard futures for you children. Much pain, suffering, and sacrifice." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Of course they had hard futures, what shinobi didn't? Trelawney held a hand to her heart suddenly. "Oh my. I see death in your near future. It looms on the horizon, coming closer which each breath." She looked faint. Sakura had to bite her tongue to keep from voicing her annoyance at the peculiar professor. She turned to Harry's crystal.

"And what do we have here? Not again, oh it is almost to horrible to speak aloud. But, I feel I must warn you about your coming horrible fate. It is the…"

"Grim?" Ron and Harry answered for her. She looked slightly taken a back.

"Yes, my child, your death is quickly approaching. Beware, my dears. I have never seen such a morbidly fated table." Finally the bell rang for the students to go to their next class. The morbidly fated table sprang up and dashed down the ladder.

"That was irritating." Sasuke said, a headache brewing from the fumes and intense annoyance.

"Is every class like that?" Sakura asked, her stomach dropping. Harry nodded and Sakura thought that she would not survive an entire year of Divination classes.

"She's so weird! I mean, the way she was talking, we were all going to drop dead right there!" Naruto exclaimed, either showing enough sense not to mention that her prediction for a hard future was obvious, or just not noticing the correlation. The second option was far more likely.

"Now we've got Defense Against the Dark Arts with that Umbridge woman. I'm sort of interested in seeing her class." Hermione said, coming up behind them as they left the North Tower.

"I'm not. Judging by her speech last night, this class is going to be a snoozer." Ron said stuffing his hands in his pockets. Sakura was also interesting in seeing Umbridge's class, and how she taught it. It would most likely be enlightening, if not enjoyable. They found most of the class anxiously waiting outside for class to begin. The door opened and Umbridge's girly voice stretched over the crowd.

"Come in, class." They filed in and took seats in the middle of the room. Umbridge stood in a puce green cardigan at her desk, smiling sweetly at the class. She waved her wand and several points appeared on the board.

_Defense Against the Dark Arts_

_A Return to Basic Principles_

_Course Aims:_

_Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic._

_Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used._

_Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use_. (1)

"Now your former teachers in this subject have been less than competent. We will have to spend most of the year relearning most of the basic concepts from the past four years." She read the course aims aloud. Sakura frowned at them. It seemed like this class was just about learning what defensive magic was, instead of learning to actually defend yourself. She shrugged it off, thinking that not every school was a Ninja Academy. Umbridge finished with the course aims and instructed the students to read in introduction of their textbooks. Sakura turned to her own book and began reading. It was boring. When she thought she was going to die of boredom, she noticed a hand stretched in the hair to her right. Hermione hadn't even opened her volume. She sat perfectly straight, her hand unwavering in the air. Umbridge definitely saw her, but was unwilling to forfeit to the fifteen year old witch. Finally she gave in.

"Yes, Ms. Granger." She said, checking her seating cart. "Is something wrong?" Hermione put her hand down, a triumphant smile on her lips.

"Yes, there is nothing about actually learning defensive magic in your course aims." Umbridge looked down at her.

"Well, that's because we will not be learning any particular spells. By learning the principles, you will be able to effectively defend yourselves in event of an attack." Umbridge walked back to her desk, as if the subject was finished. But Hermione was not done. As most of the class stared at her, she stopped Umbridge in her tracks.

"I don't believe that that will work. Just because we understand the legal way to use defensive magic doesn't mean we will be able to use it in the event of an attack." Harry backed up Hermione.

"Yeah, it won't help if we freeze up because we were never tested on our reactions or reflexes." The shinobi watched with interest as most of the class took courage in Harry and Hermione's words and spoke up for their classmates. Sakura agreed with Hermione, thinking of her own days at the Ninja Academy.

"That is enough." Umbridge said silencing the students. "It seems that you all believe that you will be attacked at any minute. Probably a lesson you learned from you previous teacher. As I said before they were all incompetent."

"We think that way because we are going to be attacked at any minute!" Harry shouted. The room fell into a decibel of silence that was previously unheard of. "Doesn't anyone realize that Voldemort's back?!?" Umbridge turned very pink in the face.

"Mr. Potter. That's twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tonight. And I warn you not to tell silly little lies in my classroom! Now return to your texts and do not talk." Most of the class obeyed her, unwilling to get in trouble on the first day of class. But Harry wasn't finished yet.

"I'm not telling lies! Voldemort's returned and we're all going to die because you're not teaching us anything!" He screamed, standing up. Umbridge looked liable to explode, but managed to compose herself.

"Mr. Potter." She beckoned to him. Even Harry realized that he had gone too far and walked to the front of the room, studying the floor. Umbridge scrawled a note on a spare piece of parchment. "Take this to your head of house immediately." She did not say anything else. Harry walked out the door, not saying anything either. The entire class was staring at her. As the door clicked shut Umbridge turned her attention back to the remainder of the class. "I hope that taught all of you a lesson. I have just given Mr. Potter a week's worth of detentions. I hope you all learn that telling ridicules lies to get attention in this class will not be accepted. I assure you, the Dark Lord has not returned. Those are just the utterances of one who craves attention. Since you are in no danger, I see no reason to wave the ministry's regulations and teach you defensive spells in this class. You will read the passages and listen to me, and you will be alright." Hermione frowned.

"Even if the Dark Lord didn't return," Ron glared at her sharply. She glared back, attempting to say that she still believed Harry, of course, but was just testing the austere professor. Judging by Ron's angry expression, it did not convey. "There are plenty of other evil beings in this world that we need to defend ourselves against." Umbridge shook her head, but again other members of the class were backing Hermione.

"And some students can't learn through books and principles. Some need to see it in practice and try it out before they understand." Sakura reasoned, again thinking of her Ninja Academy days. She was able to learn ninjutsu skills out of books, but others needed to be physically shown how to do the techniques. Umbridge wheeled around to glare at her.

"I would suggest that you don't speak of things you don't understand. You are but a child and a newcomer to this school. So be quiet, Ms. Haruno." Sakura backed off, looking hurt. Sasuke stiffened.

"She was only voicing her opinion. Or is that prohibited here too." Sasuke said, his cold voice flustering the already disconcerted teacher.

"Read the introduction in your books. The next one who speaks gets detention for a month." Everyone shut up, knowing when they've gone too far. Sakura smiled at Sasuke, thrilled that he stood up for her. She had thought he never would acknowledge her, but they are growing closer each day. The remainder of the class passed in a tense silence, everyone waiting for the bell to ring. The class filed out silently and quickly when the bell's tones finally washed over them. The three genin followed a pissed Ron and Hermione, who were arguing, out of the room and into the labyrinth like halls.

"Thanks Sasuke." Sakura said, turning red. Sasuke nodded, containing his own smile out of a fear of emotions. Naruto came between the two.

"Wow, she was mean. I wonder why she was so mean. I mean that was seriously uncalled for." Sasuke and Sakura exchanged an eye roll at their teammate's expression and caught up with Ron and Hermione.

They met up with Harry at dinner. He was extremely irritated by the detention and the lecture from Professor McGonagall. Even more annoying were the whispers that spread across the hall about Harry's outburst. And very few of them were flattering. Most were expressing the apparent popular belief that Harry was insane and making up this story to get attention. But the three genin knew better. They would not have been sent to protect Harry without a very good reason. But then again, how were they to know that it was for real. That was another thing that they would have to talk to Kakashi about on Friday. The whispers spread across the hall, Sakura catching her and her teammate's names thrown in some places. The whispers concerning their actions were far more flattering than the ones concerning Harry.

"I can't believe her. She is evil." Harry hissed, staring up at Umbridge. Sasuke felt sick as he watched the already plump witch stuff herself gleefully with food and speak in her sick high pitched voice to another professor. He hated her with an intensity that he reserved for very few people. Shaking his head, he pulled his glare away from the hated professor and pushed her from his mind. He tried to keep his mind clear of such hatred these days. He turned to Sakura and engaged, to her delight, in a conversation with the kunoichi.

Naruto was having fun bashing Umbridge with the wizards.

"And her stupid sweaters are terrible." Naruto was saying when an odd girl approached them. She was wearing earrings made of what seemed like radishes, a necklace of bottle caps and her robes were inside out. Her wand was tucked precariously behind her ear and she was reading a magazine while she walked. The colors she wore indicated that she was in Ravenclaw but she approached the Gryffindor table with the self confidence of a real lion. As she reached Harry she closed her magazine and tucked it in her bag.

"I believe you." She said simply. "My family has always believed that You-Know-Who would return and we have never held much stock in the Ministry." And she walked away with those words. The people seated at the table around where they sat stared after her.

"What the hell was that?" Ron asked, completely flabbergasted.

"I have no idea." Naruto replied, also flabbergasted. Sasuke and Sakura returned to their conversation, as did Fred and George Weasley. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind her, that was Luna Lovegood." She explained to the others. "She is sort of eccentric, her entire family is." Ginny returned to her meal. Naruto and the wizards looked at each other and laughed, provoking irritation from Sasuke and Sakura.

Dinner passed without further incident. The students were dismissed and they returned to their dormitories. Sasuke realized that he wasn't getting as hopelessly lost as he had for the past two days. As he went to bed later he thought that he may be able to get used to a peaceful school. It was a good vacation from a way a life in which every lesson was life threatening.

(1) Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2003.


	5. Second Day and Suspicions

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Hello again! I know two updates in such a short time. Hopefully there will never be such a long wait like the last one again. Now, I'm sort of nervous about posting this chapter. I think this may be the first time some people might take issue with some things. Remember when I said there was a reason Sasuke was a little OOC. Well there's not so much a reason why he needed to be OOC, besides the obvious the story-wont-go-anywhere reason, but why he was. I hope you guys like my reason, or at least accept it. smiles hopefully. Oh, thanks for the awesome reviews! You guys are the best.

Chapter 5

Second Day and Suspicions

The next morning the students stumbled to class, still not accustomed to the early waking hours. Their first class of the day was Transfiguration, the art of changing one thing to another. Sakura entered this class with interest, Naruto with nerves. Sasuke was neutral. He would attempt to do it on his own, and expected fair results but if all else failed he could use the sharingan to mimic one of the other students' spells. That Hermione seemed like a good option.

Professor McGonagall was the teacher of this class. She set the students to reviewing Vanishing Spells. After discreetly showing the genin how to perform the spell she returned to patrolling the room, making sure the other students were doing the spell correctly. Sakura remembered what McGonagall had told them two days ago when they first received their wands. Using her absolutely perfect chakra control she let a thin stream enter the stick of wood and said the magic word, unsure if this was going to work. To her great pleasure the box she was practicing on vanished completely almost immediately. Her gleeful smirk was of great annoyance to Naruto, who was having no luck with the spell. Sasuke tried and failed, but his attempt was far closer. His box at least seemed a bit more transparent.

"Sakura, can you do that again?" He asked, discreetly activating the sharingan. Sakura got another box and slowly did the spell again, Sasuke doing it at the same time as her. He smiled and the red faded from his eyes. A glance around the room showed him that no one saw his use of the sharingan. Sasuke took another box and successfully preformed the spell again. Naruto still could not make his box disappear.

"How are you guys doing that?" He exclaimed, furious. Sakura shook her head and went to help him.

"You need to control your chakra better. I thought you had improved." She hissed in his ear, so that none of the wizards heard her.

"I did, but I still can't make my chakra go into this stupid piece of wood." He said, still furious. Sakura whacked his arm.

"Not so loud. It's a secret remember." Naruto shut up at the murderous look in Sakura's eye.

From the table behind them, Hermione was watching intently. She frowned as she watched Sasuke perform the spell again, just to make sure he could do it on his own.

"Don't you notice something odd about how the new students do their spell work?" She asked Ron and Harry. They were too absorbed in their own failures.

"They come from a different school; all schools probably do it differently." Harry said, and then returned to his unforgiving, visible box. Hermione watched again as Naruto did it this time, with Sakura guiding him. She saw the difference. While most wizards say the magic words and move the wand in a pattern to perform the spell, all these particular 'wizards' were doing was saying the spell. They were simply holding the wand pointed towards the object. Hermione's sharp gaze picked up small flickers of power that came from deep inside each of them and followed up their arm and through the wand. It passed through the air to fill the object they were transfiguring. Hermione shook her head free of these suspicious thoughts and turned to her own box to vanish.

Later that night Sasuke crept down the boys' staircase. It was near midnight. He crept into the common room, using all his skill to keep completely silent. His skill was enough to fool wizards with no shinobi skills but not for an awake shinobi who knew his chakra signature inside and out. Sakura was waiting for him near the portrait hole.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her. She always seemed to pop up when he was sneaking out.

"I was awake and I felt your chakra flare across the tower so I thought something was wrong. Nothing is wrong right?" It took Sasuke a minute to realize why Sakura looked so worried. He remembered the last time they had met like this. The meeting had ended with Sakura unconscious on a bench and Sasuke missing from the village. He stepped closer to her.

"Nothing is wrong." Sakura threw her arms around Sasuke's shoulders, terrible images flashing before his eyes. He remembered running away, fighting Naruto, joining Orochimaru. Sakura remembered what it took to bring Sasuke back. Tsunade tested for months, using Anko's curse mark as reference. She was able to concoct an antidote, but it had to be stabbed into the skin of the curse mark. They needed someone close to Sasuke to deliver the antidote…

"_Why have you come, Sakura?" Black marks encircled Sasuke's entire body, showing that he was completely in Orochimaru's control. _

"_Because I love you." Was Sakura's simple reply. She threw her arms around Sasuke's shoulders, in a seeming gesture of love. But in her left hand she clutched a kunai laced with the antidote. "And I will always love you." Tears streamed down Sakura's face as she plunged the kunai into Sasuke's neck, finding her mark perfectly. He screamed in agony, the curse mark fading and blood dripping down his back and splattering across both of their faces…_

"Nothing is wrong, Sakura." He hugged her close, comforting his concerned teammate. "I'm not ever going to run away again." Sakura's left hand found the knotty scar on his neck.

"I'm…so sorry." She choked out.

"Thank you." Sakura looked up, surprised.

"For what?"

"For having the courage to stab me. No one else could have done that." Sakura swallowed a lump in her throat, staring at the floor. She hastened to move the conversation on, lest she cry and appear weak.

"Why are you up?" She asked Sasuke, truly curious as to why he was out of bed.

"I wanted to check something out in the forest. I thought I saw something today in Transfiguration when I activated the sharingan." Sakura nodded.

"Good thing I brought my kunai down." Sasuke smiled, of course, Sakura would not allow him to go into a possible battle alone. Or run away while everyone else slept. But Sasuke at least had to try and convince her to stay behind.

"You should stay here. It not a big deal, you should stay close to Harry."

"Naruto can probably handle himself if they are attacked tonight. And this is far more important that simply guarding Harry. I'm coming and there is absolutely nothing you can say to stop me." Sakura finished and slid out the portrait hole. Sasuke quickly followed her, smirking.

"Okay, fine. I had to try." The two crept through the sleeping castle silently, just barely able to find their way down to the giant doors. As they slipped out Sakura whispered to Sasuke.

"Aren't we not allowed to wander around?" She asked. Sasuke nodded.

"So we can't tell Kakashi-sensei unless it's something big." They jogged across the lawn and to the edge of the forest, hesitating at its borders. They exchanged a glance and jumped swiftly into the trees. This forest was no different than the dense woods that Konoha was surrounded by, so the two shinobi were right at home. "This way." Sasuke indicated towards the East, looking for the place where he had seen movement earlier that day. They shot through the trees. Sakura smiled at the feel of wind on her face, feeling that this was what she was really meant to do. She was good at academic stuff, but she loved practical shinobi arts.

Sasuke and Sakura traveled about a mile in no less than five minutes. Sasuke jumped from the trees at a clearing. They examined the area.

"There was definitely a camp here recently." Sakura said, turning over the remains of a campfire. Sasuke checked the surrounding area.

"But there is nothing here now." He said with a sigh. "I don't think this is anything major. Probably just travelers passing through." He was slightly disappointed at finding no real evidence.

"We should still be more careful. They may be more than travelers." Sasuke agreed with his teammate and they left for the castle. As they darted through the trees Sasuke impulsively reached down and grabbed Sakura's hand. They shot back t the castle hand in hand.

The next lunch hour Hermione spent in the library. She was beginning to suspect the three new students of hiding something. Therefore, she decided to find out more about them. She was poring over a book of secret schools in the area when she discovered that there are only three that had not been shut down long ago. And the others were far from here, in places that were completely unreachable. Hermione also reasoned that any school that was secret enough not to disclose their whereabouts would not simply allow three of its students to come to Hogwarts randomly. She was thinking of other possibilities when Harry, Ron, and those whose story she was destroying walked into the library. They sat down beside her.

"I knew you would be in the library, Hermione. It's not like you ever go anywhere else." Ron said with a chuckle. The witch rolled her eyes. Harry took out his homework and started on it. Ron also took it out, but just stared at it for a while. Hermione made sure that the genin were absorbed in their own hushed conversation before she related her findings to the boys.

"I don't get it." Harry said when she was finished. "If it really was a secret school, then it probably wouldn't be in a book."

"But don't you think there is something strange about them?" Hermione tried to get them to believe her. "Something about them isn't right."

"Come off it Hermione." Ron said agitated. "You're just being distrustful. Get over it." Hermione glanced at the shinobi as they bowed their heads together, talking. She knew something was up, and she again vowed to find out what it was.

"How come you guys didn't invite me?" Naruto asked, depressed.

"I was going to go alone, but Sakura caught me so she came along." Sasuke explained irritable. He hadn't slept the night before, too charged from the run through the forest.

"Anyway. It's nothing major. I don't think we have to worry about it." Sakura glanced across the long table at Hermione, who was looking at them funny. The witch turned to Harry and Ron and whispered something in their ears. Sakura couldn't help but feel hurt.

"I think they're talking about us." She said tightly. Sasuke looked at them.

"Of course they're talking about us." He sighed. "We need to find a way to gain their trust or we may not be able to protect them properly."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"I heard that they like to sneak out and get into trouble. We need them to invite us along; it will be the easiest way to keep an eye on them." Sasuke said. "So think of ways to get them to trust us." Sakura and Naruto nodded. The bell rang for the afternoon classes and the six tensely walked to Charms together.

On Friday after classes Harry left to go to detention, and Ron left for Quidditch tryouts. It had taken several hours to explain the sport to the genin and they still didn't get it, even as they sat in the stands watching the tryouts.

"I still don't understand why this is so much fun." Sakura said as she watched a trembling second year completely miss the ball. Naruto snickered.

"Yeah but it's really entertaining." He said, laughing as the second year missed yet another shot. Sakura shivered. She had forgotten how cold it could get in the fall. Sasuke noticed and placed an arm around her shoulders.

"We should go meet Kakashi-sensei." Naruto turned around and walked down the bleachers, still laughing at the incompetent second year. Thankfully he hadn't seen Sasuke's arm around Sakura, or they would have fought-yet again. The three went back up to the school, and managed to find their way up the winding staircases to Dumbledore's office. As they reached the gargoyle it sprang open, allowing them passage to a final staircase. They ascended the staircase and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in." The three entered the office. Dumbledore was sitting, smiling behind his desk. Kakashi leaned against the wall to their left.

"So how was your first week?" He asked them. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura smiled at their teacher, then remembered that they were supposed to be mad.

"How come you didn't tell us about this Voldemort guy?!?" Sakura yelled.

"I thought this was a simple C rank mission. With this information the mission should be classified as A rank." Sasuke reasoned, his black eyes flashing.

"How come you're here? You're always late." Naruto asked, not really following the thread of the conversation. Kakashi sighed.

"Okay. Naruto-you're ten minutes late. I was five. Sasuke and Sakura- I didn't tell you because I wanted you to find out. When you go on missions as adults you often don't know anything about it until you get there. I thought it would be good to practice fact finding." He smiled at his students as they stared at him. "Is something the matter? You guys are looking at me funny." The three exchanged a glance.

"But this is way more dangerous." Sakura said, sounding nervous.

"Don't worry Sakura. Its no more dangerous than before you knew this, if you think about it." Kakashi's students stared at him blankly. "Now stop freaking out over this and tell me about the rest of the week." Sasuke related tales of their classes and the hushed conversations that the wizards kept having.

"What if we can't get them to trust us?" He asked.

"Don't worry about that either. Even if they don't trust you, you can still use your skills to tract them." Finally, Sakura told him about Umbridge.

"She's terrible! I don't think I've ever met anyone who was more…mean!" Sakura exclaimed. Naruto backed her up.

"I don't know why she was so mean. It wasn't like we were mean to her. She was just mean!"

"Again Naruto, your descriptions astound us." Kakashi said as everyone in the room stared at the oblivious blonde. "I hate to sound repetitive, but don't worry about her either. She is no part of our mission, just a very bitter teacher. You haven't had that many, so you don't realize how mean they can be. Now about next week…" Kakashi never got the chance to finish his sentence. At that moment, the woman they had just been talking about entered the office without knocking and interrupted him in an attempt at a polite voice.

"I'm sorry to just barge in like this, headmaster," She said in her girly voice. "but lights out was ten minutes ago and these students should be in bed." A muscle twitched in Sasuke's jaw, as if he were holding back words. He looked to his teacher, whose expression to a trained eye looked a bit angry.

"Sorry, but just who are you?" Kakashi asked sternly. Umbridge turned to him.

"I am Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge. And who might you be?" Before Kakashi could answer, Dumbledore stepped in, an effort to stop Umbridge's soon to come rant.

"This is Kakashi Hatake, the three new student's primary teacher." Umbridge nodded, looking serious.

"I have been meaning to discuss that with you, Headmaster. I don't believe that this is such a good idea. The ministry hasn't approved it." The twitch moved to Sasuke's mouth.

"I don't see why that's a problem. Isn't Dumbledore in charge of the school?" Kakashi's cold, emotionless voice caught Umbridge by surprise.

"Yes, but the ministry-"

"Does not have that much control yet." Dumbledore finished for her. Umbridge looked even more flustered than their first class with the stout professor. "I invited these students here, and it would be quite rude to send them home. And if you will forgive them this one time for being out late." Dumbledore's voice was dismissive. Umbridge realized when she was in over her head and turned to leave. She swept out the door without another word. Kakashi shrugged.

"I see what you guys mean." He said with a small smirk. "And I lied. Be careful around that one."

The next morning everyone was up early. Harry because he wanted to write and mail a letter and Sasuke because he wanted to tail Harry. He kept to the shadows as Harry sat writing the letter and followed him carefully down through the castle and to a large, ceiling less room where owls sat on perches. Sasuke amused himself by studying the owls as Harry tied his letter to one's leg and sent it away. When Harry was staring out the window, Sasuke almost stepped out of his hiding place to confront Harry but was interrupted by the arrival of a girl Harry's age. He sighed and waited while they spoke and were spoken to by an older man. Finally the girl and the man left and Sasuke was alone in the massive room with Harry. He stepped out of the shadows, slightly startling Harry.

"Good morning." The shinobi said amiably. Harry took a step back.

"Oh, hi. What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I was just exploring." Silence fell between the two as Harry stared out the window across the lawns and Sasuke figured a plan to get his trust. He decided just to be honest.

"I also was looking for you. I think we need to talk." Sasuke said, invoking a nervous look from Harry.

"Sure, what do you need?"

"I just wanted to talk about all this stuff about Voldemort." Harry raised his eyebrows. He knew of few people who dared to speak Voldemort's name aloud. "We come from pretty far away so we don't know any of the stories. And the people here aren't really being helpful." Sasuke glanced at Harry, who seemed to be thinking. In truth a small bomb was going off in Harry's head.

_They deserve to know what kind of trouble we tend to get in to. _

_What if they're not trust worthy?_

_Why shouldn't they be?_

_What if they betray us?_

_They won't they're only twelve. And if Dumbledore trusts them enough to allow them at Hogwarts, they're trustworthy._

_What if Dumbledore is wrong?_

_That a lot of What Ifs if you ask me. _

Sasuke looked on as Harry studied the floor with a confused look on his face.

"You don't have to tell me if you really don't want to. I just wanted to know the interesting stories from around here." Sasuke said, taking a new course of action. "Every school has its own stories. I…" He faltered for a moment. "I once ran away. It took a while to get me back. Sakura could tell you more about it. I don't really talk about it much." It was Sasuke's turn to study the floor. "And Naruto's always getting into trouble." Despite the uplifting ending to Sasuke's little speech, Harry could see that talking about running away deeply hurt the twelve year old. He sighed deeply. Since Sasuke had shared a story about himself that obviously had been big, Harry decided that it was time to let the three in on the tales of Harry's first four years at Hogwarts. And the expeditions that were sure to come.

"We should head back to the common room. I have a couple of long stories to tell you."

A couple of hours later the three genin sat, staring open mouthed at the wizards. Harry had brought Sasuke back up to the common room and he, Ron, and Hermione had regaled them of all the stories of the first four years. Hermione was the least willing to trust them. She did not voice any of her opinions about their suspicious behavior and was the quietest of the three wizards. But she had allowed and sometimes added to the stories that were secret to most of the student body. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto had also thrown in some tales from their school days, making them sound similar to the wizard's tales. They had to sound like these tales were as unusual as Harry's, while in truth they were just a part of daily life.

"Wow." Sakura said after a long silence in the sharing. "You guys certainly get into a lot of trouble. Probably more than Naruto even." Naruto glared at his teammate, opening his mouth to retort, but Harry interrupted.

"Well, trouble usually finds us. We don't really go looking for it." He thought for a millisecond. "Oh, wait, yeah we do." He looked down at his lap blushing. Sasuke's mind was working over time. This mission is getting more complicated by the second. Not only is this kid wanted dead by the most powerful wizard of the age, he goes looking for trouble at every opportunity. Sakura's wrong, he gets into far worse trouble than Naruto. It was Sasuke's turn for a hesitant thought. No wait, they're about even. He frowned, thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong.

"There's one more thing we have to tell you about." The three looked at him, looks of doom on their faces. "Don't freak its nothing important." Ron said smirking. "Well, it's important, but not dangerous or anything."

"It's called the Order of the Phoenix. It's a secret organization that is helping fight Voldemort. But it has to be a secret because the Ministry of Magic doesn't believe that Voldemort's returned. People who say that…well you saw what happens on our first day back." Harry said, looking sheepish. Hermione was sitting half in the shadows, scoffing at all that her friends were telling these newcomers. She had again and again voiced her opinion that they were up to something but she was entirely ignored. They were being trusted with the Order of the Phoenix. She decided not to take part in the discussion anymore.

A crowd was gathering around the bulletin board in the heart of the common room. Fred and George Weasley poked their way through it to find Ron. Both twins had identical foolish grins of their faces.

"Just who we wanted to see." George said, placing his hands on his youngest brother's shoulders.

"I bet you can't guess why we're over here?" Fred said. Ron gulped.

"This isn't about Quidditch, is it?" He asked timidly, looking green.

"Why yes it is." Fred said mockingly.

"So did he make it?" Harry asked. The table was silent, the wizards tensely waiting for the verdict, the genin just not caring.

"Why yes he did!" Fred said. "And we have our first practice." The twins pulled a shell shocked Ron out of his chair and out the door.

"Coming Harry?" George called over his shoulder.

"I'll be right there!" Harry called back. "I've got to go. Be back later. Hey-do you guys want to come watch the practice? It would be enlightening." He smiled at the genin, trying to get them to accompany him down to the field. Sasuke shrugged and looked at Sakura.

"Sure, why not?" The bubbly kunoichi said. "Let me just get my jacket." She climbed up the girl's stairs. Naruto looked dejected.

"I can't I have a TON of homework. They never gave this much at the Nin…" Sasuke kicked him under the table. "At our old school." Naruto finished with a glare at Sasuke. Hermione smiled, think about how perfect this was. Naruto was always the one closest to spilling their secret.

"I'll stay here and help you Naruto."

"Oh, thanks!" Naruto said, thankful for the extra help. Sakura came down the stairs, a red and gold scarf trailing in her wake.

"Okay, let's go."

The three went down to the Quidditch pitch. Harry left them when they reached it, heading for the locker rooms. Sasuke and Sakura headed up into the stands and sat side by side at the very top. They watched as the Gryffindor team mounted their brooms and flew in circles around the pitch.

"Why did we come here?" Sakura asked, thoroughly bored. Sasuke shrugged, looking at her. A cold wind whipped through the stands, messing up her bright pink hair. Sasuke shook his head, not sure he wanted to think these things. Sasuke Uchiha was not supposed to have emotions, especially those of love for a teammate. Anything could happen on a mission, and there shouldn't be emotions to cloud his judgment. But he really couldn't deny his heart any more than it had already been denied.

The wind turned even bitterer. Sakura shivered, thinking that she would soon head back to the castle when she felt an arm slip around her shoulders. Her eyes widened.

"Sasuke?" She turned to see Sasuke looking away from her, a red tinge growing in his cheeks. He was smirking, his arm draped carefully around her shoulders.

"You were cold, so I thought…" His cheeks reddened even more. She smiled and leaned into him, deciding that it was far warmer in Sasuke's arms than it even could be at the castle. They continued to watch the Quidditch players toss a ball back and forth between each other. But neither really were watching the practice. Sakura was silently celebrating her long coming victory and Sasuke was really hoping that he was making the right decision. Each was so absorbed in their own thoughts that they didn't hear Malfoy come up until he spoke.

"How cute. The little newbie's are in love." He sneered down at him.

"Leave us alone, Malfoy." Sasuke said in his coldest voice, which normally sent others running from the frighteningly powerful Uchiha but Malfoy didn't know of his powers. And he could not find out.

"What are you going to do?" He sneered at them. "You may be studying as fifth years, but you are nothing but second years." He said, stooping close to Sakura's frowning face. Sasuke got pissed and pulled her out of the way.

"Back off, Malfoy." She said, furiously.

"Again, there is nothing you can do." Crabbe and Goyle surrounded the two unsuspecting genin. Sasuke frowned, think through a thousand tactical ways to kill the two thugs. Under normal circumstances all three of them would be down in seconds. But he couldn't, since their powers were supposed to be secret. Sasuke took Sakura's hand and led her away from the Slytherins. His face was hidden in shadow, but Sakura knew his body language better than anyone and knew that he was seriously affected by this.

"Sasuke, you did the right thing." She said quietly.

"Yeah, but it still feels like running away." Sasuke still looked depressed and angry at the same time, and there was nothing Sakura could say that would help.


	6. The Letter and the Visitor

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Hello, chapter six here. I was going to post it last weekend, but its midterm week and I was writing several papers. Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks for getting me up over a hundred reviews! I've never gotten so many before! You guys are the best. : ) Again in this chapter I copied Percy's letter from the original book. I've put the correct MLA format citation at the end, so don't sue! Happy Reading all!

Chapter 6

The Letter and the Visitor

That night they all sat at a small table in the common room. Sasuke and Sakura had not told their friends what happened with Malfoy, but the wizards guessed and left them alone to their self pity. Naruto noticed that they were acting oddly, but also left them alone. He was still stinging from when an already furious Sakura walked in on him about to spill their big secret to a very eager Hermione. Hermione was sitting in a corner, pretending to read but really glowering at Sakura over her book. Sakura, in turn was glaring at Naruto. Sasuke hadn't said a word all night. They were (in some cases pretending to be) working on homework when a light tapping brought them back to earth.

"Hey, that's my brother's owl!" Ron exclaimed.

"Your brother?" Sasuke asked tensely.

"Yeah, I never thought he would be writing to me. We've had a bit of a row with him, and he's not speaking to the family much anymore." He opened the letter that the owl carried, reading it. At the end his expression was a combination of anger, confusion, and amusement. Harry snatched the letter from Ron and the rest gathered around to read over his shoulder.

_Dear Ron, _

_I have only just heard (from no less a person than the Minister of Magic himself, who has it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge) that you have become a Hogwarts prefect. _

_I was most pleasantly surprised when I heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations. I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the "Fred and George" route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility. _

_But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions. _

_From something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter. I must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternization with that boy. Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this- no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledore's favorite- but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different- and probably more accurate- view of Potter's behavior. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet tomorrow you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing- and see if you can spot yours truly!_

_Seriously, Ron you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come out of it looking too good. He got off on a mere technicality if you ask me and many of the people I've spoken to remain convinced of his guilt. _

_It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter- I know that he can be unbalanced and, for all I know, violent- but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in Potter's behavior that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a really delightful woman, who I know will be only too happy to advise you. _

_This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore's regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that so far Professor Umbridge is encountering very little cooperation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires (although she should find this easier from next week-again see the Daily Prophet tomorrow!). I shall say only this- a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!_

_I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticize our parents, but I am afraid I can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore (if you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore's has recently been sent to Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders). I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people- the Minister really could not be more gracious to me- and I do hope, Ron, that you will not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents' beliefs and actions either. I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realize how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes._

_Please think over what I have said most carefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter, and congratulations again on becoming prefect. _

_Your brother, _

_Percy (1)_

There was a moment of silence. Everyone exchanged a look, most fighting back laughter.

"He seems…interesting." Sakura said at long last. Ron took the letter and started shredding it into very small pieces.

"What an idiot." Harry was silent, looking a little troubled.

"I don't understand why he thinks Umbridge is so great! The way he was going on about her, she was the best thing that happened to this school." Naruto exclaimed.

"I wonder what he meant about the Daily Prophet." Hermione asked, frowning.

"I guess we'll find out tomorrow, Harry said, sounding defeated. Ron looked at him.

"Sorry about this Harry…"

"Don't, its fine." Harry said dismissing him. "I'm really not offended." Ron still looked doubtful. He turned to drop the letter in the fire.

"But I still-Sirius!" Everyone jumped as they looked to the fire and found a face swimming among the flames. Sakura screamed, but was immediately silenced by Ron's hand over her mouth. Sasuke glared at him, but was not even noticed in the excitement of a head suddenly appearing in the fire.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Harry asked, shocked.

"Oh, so you're Sirius?" Naruto asked, again stating the obvious. The man in the fire looked them all over.

"Yes, and who might you be?" He asked. Harry introduced the new students and quickly explained that they could be trusted.

"Okay," He said hesitantly. They continued on to talk about Harry's scar hurting, something that little affected the mission, therefore they barely paid attention. It took Sakura a minute to get her heart rate under control. The sound of Umbridge's name brought them back into the conversation.

"Oh, yes she's a terror." Sirius was saying. "Remus despises her." Harry looked slightly confused.

"Lupin knows her?" He asked.

"She big on prejudices. Of all kinds. She really hates people like werewolves, vampires, and other half humans. But she doesn't like other cultures either." He said with a glance at the three shinobi. Sakura nodded. As proved the previous night, she didn't approve of cultures mixing.

"We've all already had confrontations with her." She said, glancing nervously at the fire.

"Don't mind her. She's foul, but she's not in league with Voldemort." He smiled. "Is she teaching you to hunt half humans?"

"She's not teaching us much of anything." Harry answered. "Every single class we read out of the books silently." Sirius nodded.

"That makes sense. The Ministry doesn't want you to be trained to fight."

"To fight?" Naruto asked. They shinobi had been silent for a while, since they didn't really know Sirius.

"Fudge-the Minister of Magic," He explained at the confused shinobi's faces. "Thinks that Dumbledore is…raising an army to take over the government." They all stared at him, surprised. Then they started laughing.

"An army?" Ron asked.

"Why would Professor Dumbledore want to stage a coup?" Sakura asked. Sirius shrugged-not that the others saw it.

"What's a coup?" Ron asked obliviously.

"When someone tries of overthrow the government and take power for themselves." Sasuke answered, the first words he had spoken in quite a while.

"Right. Fudge has come under a lot of stress and has become paranoid. Don't pay him any attention. Our real problem is Voldemort. You all need to be on your guard. Your scar hurting is not that troublesome- it was bound to occur more frequently now that Voldemort has returned. But still be more careful. I should go. I've been here too long, someone may notice. Write if you need anything."

"Bye Sirius!" The wizards said together.

"Bye!" He said, and vanished with a slight pop. Harry yawned.

"We should go to bed. It's almost two in the morning." Ron and Hermione stood up and followed Harry to the stairs.

"Are you guys coming?" Harry said, turning around to look at them. The three exchanged a glance.

"We'll be right up." Naruto assured the wizard. Harry nodded and climbed the stairs out of sight.

"That was so weird." Sakura said-just as Sirius reappeared in the fire. She jumped, but was more used to it this time.

"Oh, I'll just go grab Harry." Naruto said, thinking that Sirius had something he had forgotten to say.

"No. I wanted to talk to you three alone. You're the ninjas right?" They nodded. "How's it going? I know they have a tendency to get into trouble."

"They haven't done anything terrible yet. Just some confrontations with Umbridge." Sasuke, who had been silent most of the evening said. "And some trouble with other students." He concluded, obviously thinking of Malfoy.

"Good. Don't be afraid to assert authority over them if they try to poke their noses in anything. And if they try to irritate Umbridge too much. And if you were talking about Malfoy, don't feel bad. He picks on everyone." Sasuke didn't really look too comforted. "Be careful. Their lives are in your hands." He vanished with a pop, leaving them to stare at the vanishing coals.

"Talk about no pressure." Sakura whispered as they rose and went to bed.

(1) Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2003.


	7. The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Hello! I'm back again. This time with Chapter 7, ah so amazed. I copied the article again from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, again with the proper citation. Please don't sue me. ((begs)) I would like to specially thank several people who inadvertently contributed to the chapter. First of all, Silent-Serpent, shuji, and anyone else who made me realize how little of Naruto there actually was in this fic. I tried to include him more in this chapter. What I'm going to do is finish writing this as is, then I'll go back and edit extensively. That's where a lot of Naruto's scenes will come in. So, forgive me for not focusing on him too much in the past six chapters. Second of all, Yue-neko deserves all the credit for her (oh, please tell me I'm right, pronoun wise. I'm so sorry if I'm wrong.) idea of having Naruto in detention. So this chapter is dedicated to Silent-Serpent, shuji, and Yue-neko for their feedback! And thanks to everyone else for their ideas and comments. I'll try to include as many suggestions as I can, but don't be too offended if I can't. I already have an outline of the story until the end, so I don't have much room for major changes. But little scenes are helpful. Oh, one more thing: Sirius knows that they are ninjas because he lives at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters and I only assumed that he would know how Dumbledore planned on protecting the Golden Trio, as I have heard them called. Thanks again everyone for the reviews! Happy Reading!

Chapter 7

The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

The next morning everyone tiredly dragged themselves down to breakfast. They had been up quite late talking to Sirius so they got very little sleep. Hermione yawned as she opened the morning newspaper, then her eyes suddenly widened as she saw the front page and remembered what Percy had said in his letter.

"Guys." She said simply. The tone of her voice was enough to cause all five of her friends to crowd around her and read the article around her shoulder.

**MINISTY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM**

**DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"**

_In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislature giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. _

_"The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts for some time" said Junior Undersecretary to the Minister, Percy Weasley. "He is now responding to concerns voiced by anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve."_

_This is not the first time in recent weeks Fudge has used new laws to effect improvements at the Wizarding school. As recently as August 30th Educational Decree Twenty-two was passed, to ensure that, in the event of the current headmaster being unable to provide a candidate for a teaching post, the Ministry should select an appropriate person. _

_"That's how Dolores Umbridge came to be appointed to the teaching staff at Hogwarts," said Weasley last night. "Dumbledore couldn't find anyone so the Ministry put in Umbridge and of course, she's been an immediate success, totally revolutionizing the teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts and providing the Minister with on-the-ground feedback about what's really happening at Hogwarts."_

_It is this last function that the Ministry has now formalized with the passing of Educational Degree Twenty-three, which creates the new position of 'Hogwarts High Inquisitor'. _

_"This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling the "falling standards" at Hogwarts," said Weasley. "The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her teaching post, and we are delighted to say that she has accepted."_

_The Minister's new moves have received enthusiastic support from parents of students at Hogwarts._

_"I feel much easier in my mind now that I know that Dumbledore is being subjected to fair and objective evaluation," said Mr. Lucius Malfoy, 41, speaking from his Wiltshire mansion last night. "Many of us with our children's best interests at heart have been concerned about some of Dumbledore's eccentric decisions in the last few years and will be glad to know that the Ministry in keeping an eye on the situation."_

_Among these 'eccentric decisions' are undoubtedly the controversial staff appointments previously described in this newspaper, which have included the hiring of werewolf Remus Lupin, half giant Rubeus Hagrid, and delusional ex-Auror 'Mad-Eye Moody'. _

_Rumors abound, of course, that Albus Dumbledore, once Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, in no longer up to the task of managing the prestigious school of Hogwarts. _

_"I think the appointment of the Inquisitor is a first step toward ensuring that Hogwarts has a headmaster in whom we can all repose confidence." Said a Ministry insider last night. _

_Wizengamot elders Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden have resigned in protest at the introduction of the post of Inquisitor to Hogwarts._

_"Hogwarts is a school, not an outpost of Cornelius Fudge's office," said Madam Marchbanks. "This is a further attempt to discredit Albus Dumbledore." (For a full account of Madam Marchbanks' alleged links to subversive goblin groups, turn to page 17) (1)._

There was yet another stunned silence. The six fifth years just stared at each other for a moment, completely shocked.

"Ah, okay." Naruto finally said, unable to keep the silence up.

"Wow." Hermione said. "I can't believe that the Minister is really taking control of Hogwarts like this."

"I don't really understand why." Sakura said, thinking. "It seems that he really thinks that Dumbledore is attempting a coup."

"Which is completely far fetched." Hermione said, shaking her head. Sasuke frowned.

"Can I talk to you guys? Alone." He whispered. The bell rang for classes, giving the shinobi the perfect opportunity to talk alone. As the rest of the classes pressed by them, the three stood off to the side in the Great Hall and talked about the article.

"I didn't like all the changes outlined in that article." Sasuke said quietly.

"Why? It shouldn't affect us protecting Harry." Naruto asked, confused.

"But Umbridge has already expressed resistance to both to claims that Voldemort has returned and our presence here." Sakura explained to the blond.

"And giving her more power is dangerous." Sasuke concluded.

"Oh," Naruto said. "Okay, now I'm worried."

"There's nothing we can do now, lets just get to class." The three ran off to Charms, having to move at break neck speeds just to make it in time.

That Friday night the genin once again found themselves in Dumbledore's office, explaining the ins and outs of their week to Kakashi. They explained about Sirius Black and voiced their concerns about the Hogwarts High Inquisitor.

"Don't take Sirius's words to seriously. Apparently he's very protective of Harry." Was all he had to say about Sirius. Kakashi had more concerns about the 'High Inquisitor'. "You saw how she was last week. Giving her more power is dangerous for us. You need to be on your best behavior." He said, staring straight at Naruto. When the blond looked around he found even his teammates were staring at him.

"What?!?" He said loudly. The other three immediately looked away. A vein throbbed in Naruto's forehead.

"Like I said, best behavior. I'm looking into Umbridge's background but it will take some time. By next week I'll be able to give you a better reading on how she'll affect our mission. In the meantime, keep your head down and don't do anything…irrational." Kakashi smiled at the three. "Have a good week."

"See you next week, sensei!" Sakura said with a return smile as she and Naruto opened the door and went down the stairs. Sasuke hung back.

"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked him. He sighed and found himself spilling the complete story of his and Sakura's experience with Malfoy. Including his feelings, which was a big thing for Sasuke.

"I know we're supposed to be lying low and I did the right thing by walking away but it still feels like running away." He finished, staring directly at the floor. Kakashi was silent for a moment.

"In our world, running away is looked down on. But the mission is always more important. If you had done what was right by our people, you would have raised suspicion with these people, messing with your ability to do your job. So, you did do the right thing, even by our terms." Sasuke looked at his teacher with skepticism. "I'm serious. This is why you haven't passed the Chuunin exam. You need to learn better leadership qualities." He held up a hand to silence Sasuke's protests. "You're focusing too much on your individual power, getting stronger. Focus on your leadership skills; your talents are developed enough, for now." Sasuke nodded.

"Fine. But that doesn't make me feel any better, just to say." He turned to leave. Kakashi sighed.

"Sasuke." The raven haired boy turned. "Just think-eventually, when the mission ends, you can kick that kid's ass, okay?" Sasuke smiled. "Feel better?"

"Yeah, that's a good image. Thanks sensei." Kakashi followed his student out of the circular office, messing up his dark black hair as he passed.

On Monday, the fifth year Gryffindors had the pleasure of watching Umbridge inspect, or rather torture, Trelawney, who was certainly one of their least favorite teachers. Naruto, Harry, and Ron had very difficult times keeping a straight face, while Sakura looked like she almost pitied the woman and Sasuke read a book under the table.

"You guys should stop laughing." Sakura whispered with a glance at the nervous looking teacher. "I mean, how would you feel if that were you being tortured by that witch?" She glanced at the two boys. "Are you guys even listening to me!?!?" She said in a slightly higher voice. The pair still didn't listen to her. Umbridge was coming closer to their table. "Well I guess you guys are just going to get in trouble since she's coming over here." Sasuke glanced up, swiftly closing his book. They watched with apprehension as Umbridge approached their table with a smug look on her face. They hadn't had much close contact with Umbridge since she came into power. Per Kakashi's instructions, they had stayed silent during classes and had bolted as soon as the bell rang. But now she rapidly approached, staring at them. It was inescapable. They would have to talk to her. Naruto, Harry, and Ron suddenly composed themselves as she approached.

"Do you mind if I ask you some questions about this particular class, dears?" Umbridge said in her high, falsely polite voice. The six nodded with grim faces. "Okay. Ms. Haruno." Sakura's green eyes flashed. "How does this class compare to the class at your old school? Since your old school was so advanced." She said in a condescending voice. Sasuke held his breath. Hard question. Sakura would have to make something up on the spot. And it would have to fit with their other stories.

"Well," Sakura said, thinking for a good thing to say. "The level of the class is about the same here as it is there. Or school did not place much importance on Divination." Sakura said, praying that she wouldn't be asked to elaborate. Umbridge almost looked disappointed, as if she wanted Sakura to mess up. She looked to Harry.

"Mr. Potter." She said. "How well would you say your attention holds in this class?" Umbridge obviously had seen them laughing earlier. Harry caught the question perfectly.

"The same as any other class." He said, holding his breath. Umbridge nodded, made a note on her clipboard, and walked away. Before turning to the next table, she glared back at their table, as if angry. Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a glance.

"It's obvious what she wants." Sasuke whispered in Sakura's ear as the three others calmed themselves down after their encounter with what they now call 'The Toad'.

"Definitely," Sakura said, watching her cross the room, interviewing other students. "She wants us gone."

Professor's McGonagall's inspection was far more interesting. It was the equivalent of one of Sakura and Ino's feuds. The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. McGonagall conducted class as usual, being the bigger person and ignoring the rivalry in the room. The class was dismissed after a tense period where they waited impatiently for something, anything to happen. But nothing did. Naruto was especially disappointed as the left the room.

"I can't believe nothing happened." He said mournfully. "It would have been so cool to watch them get into a fight or something." He failed to notice his companion's faces growing horrified. "I would have loved to see McGonagall kick that toad's fat ass." He laughed. "Hey, why aren't you guys laughing?" He asked, turning around and jumping out of his skin. Umbridge was looking at him sternly. "P-professor Umbridge…" Naruto said, smiling overly large. She scowled.

"Don't play with me, Mr. Uzumaki." She said harshly. "I'll see you in my office, tonight at seven o'clock sharp. If you're late, we meet every day for a week. So don't be late." She stalked away, leaving a stunned silence in her wake. Naruto's false smile faded giving way to a look of pure despair.

"Awwwww." He said. Sakura shook her head.

"You brought it on yourself, Naruto." She said. Sasuke nodded in agreement. Harry's eyes were darkening as he recalled his own horrific time in detention with the Toad. Ron was shaking his head in sympathy. Naruto groaned. What had he gotten himself into this time? One thing was certain; there would be no one to buy him ramen after.

Sharply at seven with a proper dejected look, Naruto knocked on Umbridge's door. He groaned as her girlish voice washed over him. He held on to a small hope that she had forgotten his detention and was not there. He opened the door. Umbridge sat smiling at her desk.

"Come in dear." She said overly sweet. Naruto gulped, sitting at a desk directly in front of the Toad.

"So, how long is this thing going to take?" He asked nonchalantly. Umbridge smiled.

"As long as it takes." Her smile was frightening. Naruto knew that anything that made Umbridge happy, spelled nothing good for him. "Nothing…too difficult. Just lines." She said, handing him a special quill and parchment. "'I will mind my mouth.' You can do lines, right?" Her tone was condescending. Naruto felt his temper rise.

"Yes." He said through clenched teeth, snatching up the quill and parchment. He sat down back down at the desk, starting to write in his messy handwriting. The second his pen touched the parchment, bloody furrows traced themselves in the back of his left hand in the same pattern that he wrote on the paper.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?!?" Naruto shouted at the marks faded from his hand. Umbridge jumped out of her skin, unused to that kind of reaction. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!? MAKING ME WRITE IN MY OWN BLOOD! HOW SICK IS THAT?" Umbridge was completely speechless. "That's not detention, THAT'S TORTURE!! And I thought the teachers at the…my old school were mean." He shook his head. "Just wait until I tell Kakashi-sensei about this! He is going to flip out!" Umbridge finally recovered.

"That is quite enough, Mr. Uzumaki!" She shouted back. "There are no rules on how I conduct my detentions! I am Hogwarts High Inquisitor! There is nothing I cannot do!" She practically swelled with her own self-importance. "You will report for the next three weeks to detention for this little outburst. And if you tell anyone, I promise you, there will be even worse repercussions." Naruto glared back into Umbridge's equally furious eyes.

"Are you threatening me?" He asked. Umbridge frowned. None of the other students she had brought to detention had fought so hard. But none of them were Naruto Uzumaki, aspiring Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"I can't do whatever I well please." She said in a dangerous voice. "I am in control here. You will go back and write until the phrase has made a lasting impression. There will be no more talking." Naruto sensed he had lost this battle and picked up his chair, which he had knocked over sometime during his initial shouting fit. He sat down and began writing. The pain was easy to ignore, Naruto having adapted himself to pain long ago. But as the hours dragged on Naruto sensed something was wrong. He remembered when Harry was in detention. He returned to the Common Room at around ten or eleven. It was now far past midnight. And the bloody wounds disappeared, leaving his skin perfect every time. Umbridge looked very concerned about this.

"Give me your hand." She said, snatching up the completely healed hand. No trace of the wounds was left. "Write again." She demanded. Naruto wrote on the parchment again, Umbridge watching every movement. _There! _She saw it. Just after the wounds were made and the pen left the parchment a flare of dull red light surrounded the wound, closing it faster and with more efficiency than the quill was supposed to allow. She was furious.

"What's wrong, professor?" Naruto asked with a smirk. Umbridge's lips pursed.

"Get. Out." She hissed.

"What?" Naruto asked, surprised at the woman's answer.

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" She shouted. Naruto scrambled up and out of his chair. "And don't bother coming back!" She called to his retreating back. Naruto paused outside the office, leaning against the office door. He had seen Umbridge's look when she examined his hand. This was dangerous.

At top speed he sped back to the common room, finding Sakura and Sasuke sitting at a table, waiting for him. The wizards were at an adjacent table, having their own conversation.

"Where've you been?" Sakura asked. "Did your detention really take that long?" Naruto's look was serious, for once.

"What's up?" Sasuke said, catching the look.

"I think I just gave something away…"

"Dolores I have to inquire as to why you are demanding a meeting at this late hour." Dumbledore said, suppressing a yawn. "As you can see, I'm not exactly dressed for the occasion." Dumbledore was looking comic in his dark blue pajamas with golden snitches covering them. Umbridge and Kakashi were more appropriately dressed, both in their normal wear.

"I'm also curious as to why you called me to this school in the dead of night." He said watching Umbridge with suspicious eyes, or rather a suspicious eye. Hers were dark, calculating. Something Kakashi definitely didn't like.

"I'm here to ask about one of your students." She said in a pompous voice. "Naruto Uzumaki." Kakashi sighed.

"I figured it as much." _Damn it, Naruto. What did you do this time? _"I hope he hasn't been causing too much trouble." Dolores smiled.

"Not too much. Normal for a student." She giggled falsely. Dumbledore and Kakashi didn't even break a smile. Her expression faltered. "But I've been noticing some…odd events." Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Just some odd red energy when he performs spells. It seems to be getting stronger. I think we may have to take him out of classes until it's under control." Dumbledore was looking very serious. But it was Kakashi's turn to laugh, a quieter, colder laugh than Umbridge's false one.

"I assure you, Naruto is in complete control over his power. You have absolutely no cause to worry." Umbridge frowned.

"I think I will be the one to decide that." She said venomously.

"No." Dumbledore said, rising from the desk. "The Ministry still does not have that much control over Hogwarts, as I said several weeks ago. That boy is a student of the school, and you have no right to expel him for no reason. He stays, unless there is evidence he must go." Umbridge almost growled, she was so angry at being defeated again. "Now I would appreciate if you got out of my office. It is nearing one o'clock in the morning, and I would like to get some sleep." Umbridge whirled around, storming out of the office without another look at either of them. Dumbledore chuckled at Kakashi. "This is turning out more trouble than I bargained for."

"My apologies." Kakashi said sarcastically. "But you hired us, remember. You should have known that those kids would be trouble. That woman is becoming a bother. Naruto better watch himself."

"The Kyuubi?" Dumbledore asked. Kakashi nodded. "Is there any danger of it breaking though?"

"Definitely not." Kakashi said immediately. "Even if it does, I didn't lie to Umbridge. He has complete control over it. There is no danger." Dumbledore sighed.

"I hope you're right." He said as Kakashi vanished from sight in the annoying way of shinobis.

(1) Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2003.

11


	8. Happy Halloween

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Salutations again! Thanks for all the awesome reviews! One thing about the romance: I'm trying to take it slow. It's more…real if it goes slower. I can't really picture Sasuke making out with Sakura so readily. It took him a while to get as far as the whole hand-holding thing; he's not just going to jump right into kissing, or declaring undying love. No matter how much fan girls and Sakura want him to. XD If you guys really need a cute SasuSaku fic, that's a bit more blatant, I'm going to write one for V-Day. I hope it will be up on the actual holiday, but since I only have one small scene written…I should go work on that now…XD Or I should work on my English essay on why Night (OMG! That guy who attacked Elie Wiesel a few days ago at that hotel should be trapped in an evil Mangekou Sharingan word forever! Or he should be beaten silly by Naruto or someone. I mean, the man goes through the Holocaust, becomes such a strong advocate and author, and then some punk has the nerve to beat him up! And Elie is like the most innocent looking guy. ::glare::) is relevant in today's society. Valentine's Day fluff it is. XP Anyways, a little more action in this chapter. Hope y'all enjoy it! Happy Reading!

Chapter Eight

Happy Halloween

Defense Against the Dark arts quickly became hell. Just walking into the room was like walking into an active combat zone. It was war. Umbridge soon found ways to slowly torture the students of the entire school, the shinobi in particular. Every time they had a test, they would all fail. Even Sakura, who would answer every question correctly, per her usual standard. But Umbridge would always find a way to fail her. It was coming out of one of these hellish classes that the three discovered an aspect of life in England that they had not anticipated.

"So, let me get this straight." Sakura said, ripping her latest test to shreds as they walked through the halls. "Halloween is just this random holiday were people dress up as random things and light candles in pumpkins and eat candy until you're sick." Ron nodded, smirking.

"That's the basic idea." He said with a shrug. "But when you say it, it doesn't sound like all that much fun." Sakura shrugged back, unimpressed by the holiday. Naruto and Sasuke were quiet, unusually on one of their parts. Naruto was still concerned about his detention with Umbridge.

"I still feel like she knows something." He murmured to Sasuke, who shrugged. "The way she looks at me in class…it's creepy." Sasuke shrugged again.

"There's nothing we can do about it now, Naruto." He said. "We just have to be careful and not piss her off."

"And that's going to be hard." Sakura said, joining the conversation. "What with her getting us for every little thing. How did I fail this homework?" Sasuke took it from her, reading quickly.

"Because she hates us. Any normal teacher would have given that full marks." He emphasized the normal. Sakura sighed.

"Great. My perfect academia record has been destroyed by a madwoman."

"Get over it, Sakura." Naruto said. She glared at him.

"Thanks so much for being supportive, Naruto." Sasuke sighed, feeling annoyance at the both of them.

"Think of the bright side, mates." Ron said happily. "No Potions this afternoon and a feast to look forward to."

For their lack of enthusiasm for Halloween, the three genin couldn't argue that the Hall was beautiful. It was decorated in stunning displays of the holiday. Pumpkins floated yards above the students' head, the thousands of candles inside lighting the room with a slightly orange hue. Heavy black cloths inlaid with tiny threads of orange that seemed to sparkle draped from all four walls of the room. Each table had one long piece of the same cloth, this time with the House colors inlaid in the heavy fabric. The hall bustled with the sounds of excited students as they eagerly await the start of the feast. Sakura was not as excited.

"I feel like something's going to happen." She whispered to Sasuke. Hermione, who had still been quite cold to the three, laughed shrilly as she heard Sakura's whisper.

"Something always seems to happen on Halloween." She said. Sakura turned to her, narrowing her eyes.

"What do you mean by something?" Hermione frowned.

"Well, in our first year a troll broke in to the school." She said, counting on her fingers. "That's when the three of us first became friends. And in second year we went to this Death day party for the Gryffindor ghost and the caretaker's cat was attacked by the monster of Slytherin."

"Death day party? Is that what it sounds like?" Naruto said to Sasuke, who shrugged looking as put off by the idea as Naruto.

"And then in third year Sirius Black broke into the castle and ripped up the portrait of the Fat Lady. And finally fourth year Harry's name was drawn out of the Goblet of Fire, entering him mysteriously in the Triwizard Tournament. Did I miss anything?" She asked Ron and Harry. Both shook their heads in the negative.

"That about sums up our Halloweens for the past four years." Harry said.

"It doesn't say much for the holiday, does it?" Sakura said, gazing at the decorations. "Nice work on the hall though…" The feast was about to start. Dumbledore was saying a few words when an odd shadow caught Sasuke's trained eyes. He glanced at his teammates. They hadn't noticed yet. He gently elbowed Naruto, looking pointedly at the shadow. Naruto squinted at it.

"What are you doing?" He whispered. "I don't…Oh!" Sakura's analytical eyes also caught the shadow. It rippled against the wall, a darker shade than normal shadows.

"That's gen-jutsu." Sakura said watching it as it moved along the wall, heading for the window. "But whose? Not Kakashi-sensei's…" Sasuke shook his head.

"That's definitely not Kakashi." He frowned, lowering his eyes when possible to hide the now red irises. "Whoever it is, they're going to get away."

"We should follow them." Naruto said. Sasuke shook his head.

"You should stay here with Harry." He hissed. "We'll need my eyes tracking him, and you're chakra reserves in case there's an attack here. You need to protect Harry." Naruto nodded, slightly disappointed at being left behind. But…

"I will protect Harry with my life!!!" He said with an all too familiar nice guy pose. Sasuke nodded. _Whatever. _He thought, but didn't say for he didn't want to get into a fight in the middle of the hall. Sakura glanced around the packed room.

"We'll have to slip out fast, at the perfect moment." She said, calculating. The perfect moment came when the food magically appeared on the plates. As everyone was gazed in awe at the array suddenly spread before them, Sasuke and Sakura slipped out of their seats and were scaling down the castle wall before even Harry, Ron, and Hermione realized they were gone.

"Where did they go?" Ron exclaimed when he looked up and saw their empty seats. Naruto laughed falsely.

"Ah..." He groped for an answer. "They're…not hungry?" He said, smiling in an effort to get the wizards to believe him. Hermione narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, shrugging. They were beginning to believe Hermione. Something was definitely up with these new exchange students.

Sasuke and Sakura were bolting across the green lawn after the mysterious shadow in seconds. They shot into the trees of the forest, springing from branch to branch, in their comfort zone. As the wind wiped through Sakura's hair she felt adrenalin pump through her system. She was ready to fight if necessary.

The two genin swiftly tracked the mysterious chakra through the forest. They went into the dark woods deeper than they had ever before. Finally, the chakra stopped, joining three other chakras and one odd soul in a small clearing. Sasuke and Sakura went unnoticed as they lingered in the trees above the five mysterious strangers.

The man who they had followed from the castle was the obvious leader of the group. He stood at a tall six feet, with dark brown hair that flowed down his neck and was bound in a ponytail. He wore dark pants and a white shirt over thick muscles. A lethal looking sword was strapped to his back. Waiting for him in the clearing were two boys and a girl, all slightly older than Harry, making them about sixteen or seventeen. The forth member of the group wore a black cloak and hood that covered his face entirely.

"What's our next move?" The boy closest to the hidden genin said. He looked sprightly, with silver hair and flowing black clothes. He was toying with razor sharp senbon, twirling them through his fingers.

"We do nothing." The leader said.

"But sensei," The girl with fiery red hair and icy blue eyes asked. "Why not?"

"We must wait for orders." The shadowy figure in the shadows said with a voice like a hiss. "You are under the Dark Lord's command." The muscular boy with short black hair scoffed.

"But why does the Dark Lord want to wait? It seems to make to most sense to take him out now, while he's surrounded by friends and a multitude of possible hostages. The sensei frowned, shaking his head.

"It would be tactical suicide to attack them now. They are not surrounded with simple witches and wizards we can slaughter. They are guarded by shinobi in disguise." Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance.

"But they're genin! If we're allied with the Death Eaters, we can over take them." The black clothed boy said.

"They are not simple shinobi." The sensei said. "You must learn to be humble, and learn when you need to back off and wait. These three genin are from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Among them are the vessel of the Kyuubi, and the last living member of the Uchiha clan." Another exchanged glance between the hidden two. These ninja had done their homework. Perhaps, too much homework. "They are guided by Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye himself. Not ones to trifle with. Even with Death Eaters on our side, we cannot take them alone. And you forget about the teachers. More powerful wizards you will not find. We must wait until their guard is relaxed." The three genin still looked uneasy.

"But…sensei…" The girl said. He shook his head.

"We will wait. Hide ourselves, and wait." The four shinobi vanished into thin air. The fifth wizard disapparated with a loud crack. Sasuke and Sakura dropped to the ground lightly, shaken.

"Okay…" Sakura said, calming herself down. "They know a lot about us." Sasuke nodded. "They're going to attack."

"At least not right away." Sasuke reminded her. Sakura frowned.

"But…who the hell were they?" She asked. "They _definitely _weren't from Konoha. That's obvious enough. Suna is allied with us now; they would never accept a mission against us. Sound has been disbanded. The other nations are so terrified of the Leaf and the Sand that they wouldn't go against us, lest they bring about the wrath of our full forces." Sasuke shrugged.

"There are few possibilities." He said, remembering their appearances exactly. "They could be from a village that's trying to gain power. I wouldn't put it past the Grass. Nor the Cloud. They've both proven they're willing to stand against Konoha. But they weren't wearing any identification. Not a single clan symbol even. They could be missing. Although they seem too…I don't know, organized to be missing nins." He took a deep breath. "The only thing we know is that we have to stop them before they come any closer to attacking the castle." Sakura nodded.

"We have to find Kakashi sensei." She frowned. "Let's try that Dumbledore's office. That's probably the safest place."

"Just what I was thinking." Sasuke said. "Let's just check on Naruto first. Make sure nothing happened." The pair slid through the forest at speeds faster than any normal human. They used their chakra to scale the walls of the castle, hiding themselves in the shadows around the window to the Gryffindor common room. Sakura used a mirror to see into the room, where Naruto sat up with the wizards at a small table next to the fireplace. She nodded to Sasuke, who tapped lightly three times on the glass. Naruto glanced up, catching a purposeful glimpse of Sasuke's hand moving towards the dormitory windows.

"Did you hear something?" Hermione asked, glancing around the empty common room.

"I, ah, will be right back." Naruto said, out of his chair and up the stairs in less than a minute. Hermione wrinkled her nose, thinking. She was always thinking, a dangerous thing.

Sasuke slid through the window to find Naruto waiting for him. Sakura remained outside of the common room window, watching over the wizards.

"Where the hell did you guys go? You missed all of dinner! By the way, now Harry and Ron are starting to side with Hermione. They _know _something is up with us. But what did you guys find?" Sasuke recounted the conversation he and Sakura overheard.

"Now, we're going to Dumbledore so he can, hopefully, find Kakashi. If you can, keep them up until Sakura gets back and can watch Hermione. I suspect that these shinobi intent to use her and the other students as hostages to get at Harry." Naruto nodded.

"But who are they? How come we don't know them?" Sasuke shook his head grimly.

"I really have no solid clue. A thousand theories maybe, but nothing solid." Naruto's expression hardened.

"I meant what I said earlier. You don't have to worry about a thing. I'll protect them with my life." He said again. Sasuke smiled ever so slightly.

"I know you will, Naruto." He slipped out the window again, rejoining Sakura. He motioned to her and the pair slid along the rooftops, gliding in through an open window close to Dumbledore's office. They ran along the winding hallways, avoiding obstacles such as teachers, ghosts, and the occasional out of bed student. They skidded to a stop in front of the gargoyle that marked the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Sasuke," Sakura said, examining the statue. "Do you have any idea how to get inside?" Panic was beginning to blossom in her chest. They had only exited the office, never entering it from this side. Sasuke shook his head.

"Shit." He hissed. "What are we supposed to do know?" His hands balled into fists, trembling. The pair was silent, both thinking. Sakura ran her hands around the statue, looking for a breaking point. Sasuke's sharingan examined it, looking for the same thing as Sakura. They found no way in to the hidden stairwell.

"I know we need a password." Sasuke said, also beginning to feel panicky. Sakura was hyperventilating.

"But we don't _have a password!!_" She almost screamed through clenched teeth.

"You certainly don't." A voice from behind them said. "I did not think this through. But I never imagined you would need me so late at night. Perhaps I underestimated the job." The genin turned to see Dumbledore smiling at them, a twinkle in his eyes. "I can see that you are both desperate to talk to me, but I suggest we take this into a more appropriate venue. Less risk of being caught." His face was suddenly serious. "Fizzing Wizbies." He said grandly. The gargoyle jumped aside, opening the door to the hidden stair. Sasuke and Sakura stared at the gargoyle.

"That was the password!" Sakura hissed to Sasuke, who was developing a nice little twitch in his eye. Dumbledore walked the two up the moving stairs and into the office. He sat them down in the chairs.

"Now, just try and calm down. I've already notified your teacher. He's on his way." Even as the words passed his lips, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke behind the two.

"Kakashi-sensei!" They both cried, jumping to their feet. Before the jounin could say a word, the genin had launched into a nearly hysterical version of the night's events.

"We were just sitting at dinner and I had this really bad feeling." Sakura said. "And then Sasuke saw this weird shadow and we knew it was gen-jutsu…"

"It was moving really strangely, it was almost a different texture than the other shadows." He said.

"And so we left Naruto with Harry and went after it."

"It turned out to be a jounin." Sasuke said. "So far, we've counted one jounin, three genins, and a 'death eater' whatever that is."

"But we're fairly sure there are more wizards." Sakura said. "Unknown number."

"And we don't know where the shinobi are from." Sasuke said. "I can't think of any village that would betray Konoha. Now, at least."

"Anyways, the shinobi were talking tactics. They're going to attack Harry!" Sakura cried.

"Not right now." Sasuke clarified. "They think it would be suicide to attack now with all the teachers here and us."

"Oh yes, by the way they know a LOT about us." Sakura said. Kakashi frowned.

"Like what?" He said, concerned.

"He knew about you. Though, everyone seems to. Except us." Sasuke mumbled, recalling how in the dark they were at the beginning of their apprenticeship. "And now we get creepy. He knew I was the last survivor of the clan. And…sensei…he knew about the Kyuubi." Kakashi raised his eyebrows.

"That is…bad. Very, very bad." He said, actually scaring Sasuke and Sakura. Dumbledore watched their reactions from behind his desk.

"Is it really?" He asked. Kakashi nodded, catching sight of his student's faces. They were absolutely freaking out, an odd expression on the usually composed Uchiha's face.

"Okay, stop panicking. Both of you." They sat back down, taking deep breaths. "Now, I want both of you to calm yourselves down and make sure you can think clearly. Go back to the dorm. Never let Harry out of your sight. I'll try and track these shinobi, find out who they are. The three of you need to stay calm and be ready for anything." They both nodded. "Now, I may have to return to Konoha for a while." He ignored the indignant cries from his students. "Just to find information. I'll make it as fast as I can."

"If you're really in trouble, we are happy to help." Dumbledore said. Sasuke looked him up and down. _No offense, old man._ He thought. _I don't know how much use you'll be. _Sakura had similar sentiments. _Seriously? They can't help us. _

"Be nice you two." Kakashi said. "Wizards are more powerful than you think." Sasuke just became surer that Kakashi could indeed read their minds. He treated them to a small, encouraging smile before vanishing. Dumbledore shook his head.

"I must say you three are a lot of trouble," The two genin just glared at him. "But you are definitely worth it. None of us wizards would have seen the shadow, or known what it was. Very nice work." They both smiled slightly.

"Thank, professor." Sakura said as she followed Sasuke down the spiraling stairs. The walk back to the dorms was a silent one. A brief goodnight was said in the common room, and the pair parted, going to their separate wings of the tower. Sasuke collapsed into bed, trying to ignore the snores of his fellow Gryffindors.

_What the hell have we gotten into? _He thought as he fell into a surprisingly peaceful sleep.


	9. Dumbledore's Army

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: YAY! I made a promise to Mushkikizou-chan that I would post another chapter tonight. We are both grieving over the lack of people updating. So, thank her (him? sweatdrops I always worry about getting this wrong…) for inspiring me to actually finish this chapter. Anyways, sorry for the wait. My inspiration was taking a vacation…to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lol. Long story…Anywho; I'm just going to stop talking. Happy reading!

Chapter Nine

Dumbledore's Army

"Harry, have you put any thought into what I said the other night?" Hermione asked her companion. The six friends were sitting in the Great Hall during what was supposed to be their Care of Magical Creatures class. The class had to be canceled because of the first snowstorm of the season, so the students were allowed to stay in the Hall until their next class. Naruto was fighting being distracted by the snow falling outside. It was a struggle to keep his mind in the conversation, when he was thinking about the epic snowball war he was going to have with Sasuke when the white flakes stopped falling from the sky.

"Hermione, I really don't think that's such a good idea."

"What's not a good idea?" Sakura interrupted, flinching. Every little thing made her jump. Sasuke was silent, black eyes darting around, focusing on the shadows. The wizards' current moods were the exact opposite of the shinobis'. They were empowered by the apparent lack of tragic event on Halloween and some of their ideas, especially Hermione's, had become a bit bold. Sakura had a sinking suspicion that this was one of Hermione's bolder ones. The witch narrowed her eyes at her shinobi companion.

"I think Harry should take over some of the Defense Against the Dark Arts instruction, since we are severely lacking in that subject." She said. "The students here need to know how to protect themselves, especially since V-Voldemort's back. Ron, I swear…!" She threatened as the redhead jumped a mile at the sound of their worst enemy's name. Sakura frowned.

"I'm with Harry." She said slowly. "It's not a good idea." Hermione scoffed.

"What's so bad? Nothing happened on Halloween, the most doomed holiday of them all. Nothing's happened in a long time, actually." She said, not noticing the disbelieving looks from the shinobi. "This is the perfect time to slow down, and catch up on our self defense." She turned back to Harry.

"So, what do you think?" She asked him. Harry shrugged.

"Fine, I'll do it." He said grudgingly. Hermione looked pleased with herself.

"Good." She said. "I already told some people to meet us at the Hog's Head tomorrow when we go to Hogsmeade."

"Wait!" Sakura said. "So we're even leaving the castle? Do we know that this Hog's Head is safe?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I asked Professor Flitwick about it the other day. He said it was a perfectly safe, though he advised me to bring my own glasses. He also said that students are definitely allowed there, so Umbridge can't get us for anything." Hermione's eyes studies Sakura's. "Anyways, it's all up to Harry, isn't it?" Both girls looked at the wizard in question.

"Ah…I guess I agree with Hermione. If a teacher said it was okay, I guess there's no harm in trying. And we really need to teach the other students about DADA. Especially…" He didn't need to state the obvious. Sakura supposed they had her beat on that point. If the other students were going to be used as hostages, they should have a small chance of defending themselves. Sasuke sniffed disapprovingly.

"There is no way we are going to that bar tomorrow to form a club that cannot be legal."

The next day, Sasuke grumbled as they walked down the main street of Hogsmeade, towards the Hog's Head.

"I can't believe we were talking into this." Sakura moaned as they reluctantly followed the wizards through the almost knee deep snow. Sakura decided that it would have been better to have stayed in bed that morning.

"Well, what are we going to do about it?" Sasuke said. "I SAID NO, NARUTO!" He shouted as his blond teammate gave an evil laugh at lobbed a heavy, wet snow ball in the Uchiha's direction. The six entered the pub, glad to be out of the cold. Sasuke's joy was destroyed as he entered the dusty pub. Every surface looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years, if it had even been cleaned at all. The bartender looked moderately dangerous, wiping a dirty glass with an even dirtier rag. There were only three customers, each at a different table. Sasuke gave them each a swift look over, finally deeming them each non-lethal, for the moment. He kept a careful watch over them, just to be safe.

Hermione settled down at one of the less dirty tables.

"Not the best place, but at least we won't be overheard." Sakura chose not to point out the fact that it was in fact, easier to be heard in a very, very quiet bar.

"So, who did you invite?" Ron asked Hermione. Harry suddenly seemed very interested in the conversation. The witch shrugged.

"Just a couple people." Students began to arrive. In minutes the once empty bar was filled with students.

"Hermione!" Harry said, indignant. "I don't want to talk to this many people!" His heart was beginning to beat faster. Naruto shrugged at him.

"It'll be fine." He said indifferently. "It's not really that many people. Only…" He counted heads. "Twenty eight…nope even thirty." He remedied when another pair of girls walked through the door. Harry's heart flopped when he saw it was Cho. She flipped her dark black hair, smiling in Harry's direction.

He suddenly felt like he could talk in front of an entire Quidditch Stadium full of people.

Naruto noticed Harry's suddenly very confident expression. His eyes flicked between Harry and Cho a couple times, a smirk growing on his lips.

"Do you like her?" He said, in a very amused voice. Ron laughed.

"He's in love with her." He said. Harry felt his cheeks warm as red spread across it and Ron and Naruto giggled like girls at the thought of Harry having a crush on the year older Ravenclaw.

Sakura surveyed the crowd with interest.

"I guess we don't need to be too concerned with being in this bar alone." She whispered to Sasuke, who nodded, his eyes still on the unknown and largely unseen customers.

"I just wish I knew who these other people were." He said. "We could really use the byakugan right now…" He said that very reluctantly. Sasuke Uchiha did not like having to rely on others, especially his powerful old rival.

"There's nothing we can do about that." Sakura pointed out. "Konoha is thousands of miles away." She fell silent as Harry stood up, at Hermione's prompting.

"Okay, well, I'm sure you all know why you're here." He was saying. The wizard cleared his throat. "Well, I'm here to teach you about some basic defenses that Umbridge is refusing to teach us in class. Now that Voldemort's back, it's er…really important to learn this stuff."

"You really believe that Voldemort's back?" A blond boy from Hufflepuff said.

"Ah…yes…" Harry said.

"You don't seem sure." Harry now got defensive.

"Look, I know what I saw. Last year, Voldemort was resurrected and he killed…he killed Cedric Diggory and I don't care what the Ministry says, that's what happened and if you don't believe me you can just walk out the door right now, because I'm not here to convince anyone of anything." No one moved a muscle. "Fine…Okay. Now I guess I need to figure out a place to meet. And I time…"

"Oh, I already have an idea about that." Hermione interrupted. "Sorry, Harry, but I was thinking that we should meet and unexpected times, so no one would figure out what we're doing." Sakura nodded, surprised at Hermione's foresight. _That's something Shikamaru would have thought of…_ She thought, interested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Cho said. "Since we all have Quidditch practices and other clubs." The other students nodded in agreement.

"The last order of business I need to accomplish before I turn the meeting back over to Harry would be the attendance." Murmurs broke out among the other groups. "Now, I promise this list will be kept very, very safe. I just want…a tally of who might be coming to the meetings. It…It affects the place we meet…" _She's lying. _Sakura thought with a smirk. _And she thinks we're up to something…she definitely is. I'll figure out what later. _She didn't need to wait until later. Hermione brought out her own piece of paper for everyone to sign. Sakura smiled to herself as she caught a glimpse of the pale lights of power glinting off the edges of the page. _She cursed the page. But why? Probably to make sure no one tattles. That's our greatest problem. So she cursed the page so something horrible would happen to anyone who tells. Ingenious. Another idea worthy of Shikamaru. He'll be jealous if he ever meets this witch. On second thought…he probably won't care. _Sakura smiled at the thought of her old, lazy friend. _The final question is do we want to sign it? _She thought for a minute more. _Well…none of us are going to tell anyone. Even Naruto's been good about keeping the secret, despite a few close calls. I think it's safe to sign. I probably won't even tell the guys about this, unless they really need to know. _Sakura promptly took the piece of paper, signing her name as a signal to her teammates that it was okay. They often depended on her analytical skills to them that things were alright. Sasuke signed it next, followed by Naruto as the final name on the list. Hermione, happy as a clam, tucked the list in her bag and turned her attention back to Harry. He cleared his throat.

"Ah…okay…I guess the only thing left is…do you have any questions?" He looked surprised, though he shouldn't have been, by the burst of questions that were suddenly asked of him.

"Did you really face off with You-Know-Who in our first year?"

"Did you really kill the monster of Slytherin with the sword in Dumbledore's office in second year?"

"Did you really dispel over a hundred dementors in the third year?"

"Can you really produce a corporeal patronus?" Harry sighed.

"Yes…Yes…Yes…and Yes." Everyone looked at him in awe.

"That's pretty awesome." A third year Ravenclaw said.

"And we all know how dangerous the stuff in the Tri-Wizard tournament was." Cho said. Harry felt himself blush again at the praise.

"So, we've agreed that Harry's the best teacher for this sort of thing." The same blond Hufflepuff said. "Great."

"Hey no one asked you to come." Ron said defensively.

"Okay!" Hermione said before everyone started arguing. She looked at her watch. "We'd better be getting back to Hogwarts, it's near three." Everyone stood up, gathering their things. "We'll contact you when we have a time and place for the first meeting." Everyone dispersed, all heading into the general direction of the castle. Harry's heart did another flip as Cho gave him a smile and a wave as she walked out the door. The three shinobi walked out on their own, a few feet behind Harry and company.

"That could have gone a lot worse." Sakura pointed out. Sasuke and Naruto nodded in agreement.

"No one got hurt." Sasuke said.

"And this whole teaching the student body defense thing…it's actually a really good idea. That Hermione's smart." Sakura said, studying the ground.

"I'm sorry, is that jealousy?" Sasuke asked. Sakura's bright green eyes just glared into Sasuke's jet black ones. Sasuke won the staring contest, looking smug.

"I wonder where Naruto went." Sakura asked in an effort to change the subject. Sasuke glanced around, looking for his teammate. In exchange for his efforts, he was given a mouthful of snow as Naruto threw a heavy snowball in his face.

"Oh, that is it!" Sasuke shouted, picking up a snowball of his own. The pair was swiftly engaged in the all out snowball battle that Naruto had envisioned the day before. Sakura and Hermione shook their heads as Harry and Ron joined the fight.

"So immature." Sakura said. Hermione nodded in agreement.

Five minutes later, Hermione was alone on the sidelines.

Sakura was protecting her Sasuke-kun from being pelted with snowballs.

Two weeks later the six friends crept through the halls. They had finally found a place to hold the meeting of Dumbledore's Army, as it had come to be called. It technically was not time for fifth years to be in bed yet, but they weren't taking any chances.

"Are you sure this room is okay?" Sakura asked Hermione for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Yes. Harry and I came and checked it out the other day. It's perfect." They came to a simple door across from a rather ugly tapestry. Hermione opened the door with flourish. "Tada!" She said excited. The room was indeed perfect. Books filled with spell books lined the walls. A stack of comfortable looking cushions were perfect to have people sit on. The floor was padded so that falling bodies wouldn't be too injured. Despite the apparent lack of a source, soft light filled the room.

"Wow." Naruto said, looking around. "This room really is amazing! I just hope it's large enough."

Time would soon tell. Within the next half hour each and every person who had signed the list had entered the room and were seated on cushions. The funny thing was the room would not have been big enough to hold this many people when the six originally entered it. Sakura noticed that as students entered, the room enlarged. The number of cushions also seemed to increases as more people needed this. Sakura vowed to return when she was alone and examine the room in more detail.

"Um…Okay, quiet!" Harry said. The room fell silent. Ginny stretched her hand into the air. "Ah….Ginny?" Harry called.

"Well, Harry, a bunch of us were wondering…if you could just give us an idea…what it's really like to…fight like you have?" Harry hesitated, thinking hard. The shinobi's attention were suddenly sharpened, fascinated by this young wizard's view on combat situations.

"Well…fighting…is like out of your control. When you're in the heat of the moment, every thought is about what to do just to stay alive. Time doesn't slow, but you seem to be moving faster and comprehending everything as its happening." He paused, musing. "It is such a hard feeling to explain. The adrenaline in your system seems to take away all your fear. You don't even think anymore, you just instinctively know what to do to survive. Its like it's in your blood…" He trailed off. "I can't even begin to explain it. Let's just start with some simple spells." The students nodded, rising from the seats and returning their cushions. The shinobi were thinking quite critically about what Harry had said.

_What does he mean, he doesn't think? You always have to be analyzing the situation, keeping your head in the game. _Came Sakura's moderately judgmental response.

_In your blood? It took me so much hard work to become a ninja! It's not in my blood! All of my brilliant strategies take a lot more effort than instinct. _Came Naruto's moderately annoyed response.

_I suppose it's different for me, but time does slow a bit. And I don't know about my teammates but most of what I'm thinking about isn't my own survival. _Came Sasuke moderately suicidal response.

_It would be interesting to see these wizards in a real battle. _Came all three shinobi's thoughts, each with a small smirk on their face.

(A/N: Haha, at the end, you see my newfound obsession with repetition. I think it makes a nice effect. XD)


	10. The Too Smart Witch

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I've had a busy couple of weeks, especially the weekends. Weekend before last, I went to the Josh Groban concert on Friday, a meeting for my England trip on Saturday, and a ballet on Sunday. And then I spent last weekend obsessively studying for the National Latin Exam, which was on Wednesday. Now that everything's slowing down, I was finally able to finish this chapter. So, sorry again for the wait! And I think the chapter title will give you all a clue about what happens. ::wink:: Happy Reading!

Chapter Ten

The Too Smart Witch

Snow still covered the castle as Dumbledore's Army began meeting with more regularity. Sasuke soon began to despise the snow as it stopped being an enjoyment and started to be a hindrance. The bitter cold pierced his bones and made waking up in the icy tower pure misery. On an especially cold morning, Hermione sprung lightly into the Great Hall during breakfast, far too energetic for the earlier hour. Every single one of her friends glared at her abysmal mood. She handed them all a gold coin, making Ron very excited.

"What's this Hermione?" He said, looking at her with adoring eyes.

"Oh, calm down, they're not real." She said, exasperated.

"Then what are they?" Naruto asked. Sakura examined the large round coin carefully. She immediately deduced that the numbers along the side could be changed, much like some of the information sharing methods used by the ANBU.

"They're a way to contact all the members about when the next DA meeting it." She said, seeming proud of her accomplishment. "Since they move around so much, we needed a way to let the others know without tipping off one of the teachers."

"This is…ingenious." Sakura said reluctantly, somewhat jealous. Hermione swelled with pride.

"Thank you." She said smugly. Sakura grumbled to herself, saved, literally, by the bell as it clanged across the grounds, signaling the students to start their day. Sakura was grateful that Hermione had arthimancy, despite the fact that it meant that Sakura had to suffer through Divination. She was able to escape the girl Sakura had rapidly begun seeing as very annoying. The pink haired kunoichi had a greater understanding for her teammates' rivalry…

The next day, thankfully, was Saturday. The three ninja, Harry, and Ron were procrastinating in the common room when Hermione burst through the portrait hole, gasping for air.

"Hagrid's back!" She gasped. Both Ron and Harry sprang to their feet.

"Really?" Harry said incredulously.

"Ah…who's Hagrid?" Naruto asked.

"Come on and meet him." Ron said, grabbing his cloak. Naruto eagerly followed suit. Sasuke and Sakura both declined.

"I've got homework." Sakura declared.

"I hate winter." Sasuke said darkly. Hermione cast them an annoyingly superior look and left through the portrait hole followed quickly by Harry and Ron, who nearly tripped over her in their eagerness. Naruto waved back to his teammates and followed, closing the portrait behind him. Sakura closed her book with a sigh.

"So," She said with a smile. "How long do you think they'll be gone?" Sasuke smirked back at her.

"Long enough." He said, realizing that they were all along in the Common Room.

The entire afternoon passed without the others returning. It was finally time for dinner.

"I guess we should just go down without them." Sasuke said with a sigh. Sakura looked worried.

"What if something happened?" She said quietly. Sasuke allowed his hand to brush against her wrist.

"Stop worrying. We would have felt if something went wrong." Sakura nodded, following her teammate out of the tower and down the winding hallways to the Great Hall. When they reached the hall, they both spotted a familiar blond head among the sea of black uniforms. It was accompanied by a messy black head, a fiery red one, and a mousy brown wavy one. Sakura grumbled.

"I am going to kill him. Making us worry like that." She said.

"Making you worry…" Sasuke hissed under his breath. Sakura turned to him, her green eyes flashing.

"Did you say something?" She glared. Sasuke just shook his head, shifting over to Naruto. The pair approached the four others, who didn't notice their presence until Sakura tapped Ron lightly on the shoulder. The redhead jumped a mile, whirling around to laugh, embarrassed.

"Bloody hell! You guys snuck up on me!" He laughed again and Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a puzzled look. "It's like you guys are ninja or something!" A collective freeze passed through the three…well, ninjas. It was almost as if time stopped a second for them. Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a look and, against all of her judgment, Sakura involuntarily winced.

The next second, time moved again. Sakura prayed to any god that would listen that no one noticed. Harry and Ron didn't seem to, but Hermione was too observant. She frowned in concentration as the others took their seats.

"Hey, Hermione where're you going?" Harry asked when he saw the witch hadn't moved to sit.

"Ah…I have to go to the library." She said, turning and rushing out of the hall before anyone had time to say another word to her. Sakura spent the rest of the meal chewing on her fingernails and inwardly kicking herself.

Hermione burst into the library, ignoring the looks from Madame Prince. It may be just a long shot, a simple suspicion that won't come to anything. But she decided to look anyways. The witch knew her way around the library like the back of her hand and quickly found the section on World Cultures. She thumbed through the titles, finding several titles that suited her purpose.

The witch read for three hours, pouring over the books she had found. When she had found enough evidence to prove her suspicions, she made a packet of information and with a smug look headed back to the common room.

She found that the three she needed were still up, something she found very convenient. In truth, they were worried about her running off by herself and were about a minute away from panicking, contact Kakashi-sensei and running after her. She plopped down at their table, still with the smug expression that made Sakura cringe.

"So." She said with a smile. "I found out your secret." Silence. A pin could have dropped and sounded like a host of exploding tags going off.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke said slowly. Hermione's smile was getting on everyone's nerves.

"Sasuke _Uchiha._" She said, pulling out a copied sheet of paper. Sasuke skimmed it, enough to understand that it was an excerpt from a book…on his family. "And I noticed that fan you drew on the edge of Naruto's homework. It matched the symbol of this clan, the Uchiha clan. I'm assuming, your clan." Sasuke remained silent.

"We still don't have any idea what you're talking about." Naruto said in a final attempt to save face. Hermione placed the rest of her packet on the table. She began her narrative.

"I've known for some time that you were hiding something. There was a certain reaction when Ron accused you of being ninja. So I went and did some research. Who knew there was so much information about the secret society hidden deep in Japan?" She continued, undeterred. "There were several books on the history, but they weren't very recent and all I was able to find in them was information about the Uchiha clan. That might have been enough to convince me, especially having seen the symbol before, but it wasn't enough. I didn't know how common a name Uchiha was and I didn't have any proof for Sakura and Naruto. Who knew, you could have left the society, and I would have been wrong. So I kept looking. I found some information that was more recent, in a sort of periodical form. The names and profiles of the recent applicants to the Chuunin Exam. I was able to find all three of you in there." She sat back in her chair, crossing her legs. "My conclusion; the three of you are indeed ninja. I'm assuming you're here on some sort of mission. And I'm not going to leave this spot until you tell me exactly what it is. I want to know everything. Not a single detail left out." They were speechless. Even Naruto, the most loud mouthed ninja, was at a complete loss for words. Sakura flipped through the information, finding the information on the Chuunin exam they took nearly a year ago. She sighed.

"Fine." Sakura said, prompting a confused look from a silent Sasuke and an infuriated look from Naruto. "Oh come on, you can't say you weren't getting tired of hiding? Of dodging suspicious looks?" Sakura sighed. "Actually this is a bit of a relief." Hermione raised her eyebrows at Sakura. She thought it would be much harder to get the information out of them.

"I guess…" Naruto said. "And I guess we might need an ally sometime soon." Sakura nodded.

"My thoughts exactly. Okay, you want to know everything?" She smiled wryly. "You sure you can handle it?"

"Sakura…" Sasuke hissed in a warning voice.

"No." The kunoichi said, locking eyes with Hermione, who was almost regretting her decision. "She wants to know, I'll tell her." With that, Sakura launched into her own narrative. By the end of it, Hermione was nauseous, Sasuke was gripping the table like he was going to fall away, and Naruto was smiling widely. He had injected some of his own hero tales into Sakura's story, which was truly every detail of their lives. It was also quite a bit…gory. She was now sitting in Hermione's previous position, the same smirk gracing her lips. Her smile widened at Hermione's diaphoretic state. "Was that enough information?" She said. Hermione nodded.

"So…we're going to die?" She said, trembling.

"Not if we can help it!" Naruto said smiling. "We promise to protect you!" Sasuke was calming down.

"Naruto's right. Nothing's going to happen. We've got some of the best resources and talents on our side. Don't panic so much, you'll give it away." He said, releasing the table. Sakura nodded.

"That's the other part. You can't tell anyone about this." She said. Hermione looked at her, shocked.

"We're going to be attacked, and I can't tell Harry or Ron about it?" She said. Sakura shook her head.

"Just let us take care of it. We won't screw up." Naruto assured her. Hermione nodded, feeling overwhelmed.

"This is a lot to take in." Sakura's tone was gentle again. "Go to bed. We'll talk more in the morning." Hermione nodded, still looking green. "I'll be up in a minute." Hermione stumbled up the stairs to her dorm. Naruto and Sakura turned to Sasuke.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded. When Sakura said every detail, she meant every detail. There were some she kept out, like the massacre and the Kyuubi, but she spared no detail about Sasuke running and the others dragging him back. Once she started talking, it seemed like she just couldn't stop. It was almost therapeutic to have all of their troubles out in the air like that.

"Sorry." Sakura apologized. "I got carried away, didn't I?" She said with a sheepish look. Sasuke shook his head.

"It's okay." Sasuke said, feeling the same as Sakura. "It felt…good…to talk about it." He gave a small smile, which was returned by his teammate before the three parted, going their separate ways.


	11. The Fire

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Sorry for the wait. My laptop had a massive virus and had to go be saved. Luckily, I didn't lose any of my onenote files. Just think of what would have happened if I had lost the outlines…::shivers:: I would have had to scrap the story…there is no way I could recreate that outline. It took me like two months in the summer. Anyways, this chapter turned out completely different than what I had imagined. This was supposed to be a beginning side plot to a bigger chapter but it went off on its own and became five pages. Lol. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'll get right to work on the next chapter! Promise!

Chapter Eleven

Fire and Ash

Sasuke woke early the next morning, just as the brilliant rays of sunlight illuminated the dormitory. He smiled grimly as a dark plan formed in his mind. The previous night had opened his eyes to some…dangers that needed taking care of.

The Uchiha swiftly dressed in his school uniform, coming down the dormitory stairs to find Sakura leaning against the portrait hole with a knowing smirk on her face.

"So what's the plan?"

It was nearly lunch before anyone saw the pair again. They came into the common room to find Naruto sitting with Ron and Harry, all three of them struggling through massive amounts of homework.

"Oi, where the hell have you guys been?" He asked, angered by the fact that his teammates had ditched him for the entire morning.

"Nowhere…" Sakura said, not entirely convincingly. Naruto raised his eyebrows at her and turned his glare to Sasuke. Neither of his teammates offered any additional information on their whereabouts for the past several hours.

Harry and Ron were not paying any attention to the conversation, choosing to slave away at homework, until Hermione burst through the portrait hole, sobbing hysterically.

"Hermione! What's wrong?!?" Harry ushered the sobbing girl into a chair.

"Oh…It's awful…" She wailed. Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a glance. Naruto continued glaring at them. "It's the library. It-It burned down!" A gasp went around the table.

"NO FRIGGIN WAY!!" Naruto said loudly, for a different reason.

"That's not possible!" Ron cried. Hermione just sobbed some more. Harry was shaking his head as he pat Hermione on the shoulder.

"Let's just go down and see for ourselves." He said.

"Yeah, let's go." Naruto said with a dark look at Sasuke. The blonde then proceeded to grab Sasuke's arm and drag him out of the common room.

"Hey, wait for us!" Sakura yelled at them and pulled the three wizards after her teammates.

Naruto and Sasuke reached the library in record time. All that remained of half of the room was a charred mass, obviously the origin of the fire. The rest of the massive library was damaged by the smoke and the water the teachers had used to put out the fire. The teachers were still standing around, Umbridge crouched in the middle of the charred mass, poking it with her wand. Sasuke grabbed Naruto roughly and pulled him behind an overturned bookcase.

"So you did do it…" Naruto whispered in awe. "Dude, that's amazing!"

"Shhh!" Sasuke said in an urgent voice. "I think they'll be a little bit mad if they found out I started this thing."

"Come on, they don't even have a clue!" Naruto said, just as Umbridge approached Dumbledore.

"It was definitely arson." She said. "Magically started. We won't be able to tell who exactly started it, but with further investigation we should be able to find the culpit and expel them!"

"Whoops…" Naruto said. "I guess they're smarter than I thought."

"All the more reason to shut up about it!"

"Stop freaking Sasuke. I'm just guessing, but you didn't use magic the way these wizards use it to start the fire, right? You used the fire-jutsu, they can't track it."

"Dobe, as soon as Dumbledore finds out that it wasn't a wizard who started it he'll know that it was me!"

"Yeah, but Dumbledore's not going to expel you."

"That teacher bitch is already suspicious of us, she'll figure it out too."

"But…"

"Why are we hiding behind a bookcase?" Sakura said, crouching down beside her teammates.

"Because Sasuke's paranoid!"

"I'm not paranoid!"

"What the bloody hell are you guys doing?" Ron asked.

"Haven't you ever heard of a private conversation!"

"Jeez Sasuke, chill. You're totally being a jerk!"

"I am not being a jerk Naruto!"

"Both of you shut up!!"

"Yes Sakura…" They both said in unison at the sight of Sakura being very, very angry. Ron decided it was a very good time to leave the three alone. He wandered back over to Harry and Hermione.

"Christ Hermione, it's not that big a deal…" He said, seeing that she was still sobbing. Sakura dragged Naruto and Sasuke over to the three wizards by their ears.

"Yeah." Sakura said. "It's nothing." Her voice was firm and reassuring. Only Hermione and her teammates caught the double meaning in her words. Hermione stopped sobbing for a second and nodded.

"Maybe we should head back to the common room." Harry said. "There's nothing we can really do here." The returned to the dormitory, Hermione considerable calmed down. But she cornered Sakura just before the portrait hole, just after the other boys had entered.

"What the hell happened?" She said in an unfamiliar strong voice.

"Those books you found were dangerous. We had to get rid of them!"

"By burning down the whole library!"

"It got sort of out of hand!"

"Why?"

"Sasuke's not that great at controlling the size of his fireballs."

"WHAT?"

"That's his power…he sort of breathes fire…"

"Oh, great! We've got an out of control arsonist running around the school burning books!"

"Will you stop overreacting?" Sakura came close to slapping her. She really did. "And keep your voice down." She added in a hushed voice. Hermione scowled.

"You can't just go around burning things down!" She said in a frantic whisper. Ron came out of the portrait hole as the words left her lips, followed closely by Sasuke and Naruto.

"What are you girls doing?" Ron asked. Neither of them answered. "Okay…Well, Sakura, Dumbledore's sent for you three." Sakura noticed for the first time their expressions. Naruto looked like he had swallowed his tongue, and Sasuke had a defiant tilt to his chin. The blood drained from her face, but she swallowed and followed her teammates away from the Gryffindor Dormitory, leaving Hermione very angry and Ron quite confused.

"So what does Dumbledore want?" Sakura asked nervously.

"We don't know." Naruto answered her.

The reached the gargoyle…climbed the stairs…and found themselves in front of Dumbledore's door.

"Alright…here goes nothing." Naruto said, extending his hand.

"We stick together, no matter what." Sakura whispered.

They opened the door and all their dramatics seemed to be meaningless.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried. Kakashi leaned causally against Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore stood off to the side, looking serious.

"Well, well, well." Kakashi said with a smirk. "I see you've been busy while I was gone. Really Sasuke, a fireball in the library?" Kakashi was one out of two people in the world that could make Sasuke ashamed, and he seriously resented that as he studied the floor in order to avoid his teacher's gaze.

"It wasn't entirely his fault." Sakura said. "I went along with him and told him where to burn…" Kakashi raised his eyebrow at them.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do anything." Naruto said, causing Sasuke and Sakura to glare at him annoyed.

"So much for sticking together." Sasuke hissed. This brought Kakashi's attention from Naruto and to Sasuke.

"I'm assuming that you have a reason…" He said. "Well?"

"Um…Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura said. Naruto was smart enough to remain completely silent. "Something…what I mean is…"

"Sakura don't beat around the bush. What happened? Any ideas, Sasuke?" His gray eye locked with Sasuke's defiant black ones.

"Hermione found us out…" He said, wincing. It sounded so much worse when he said it out loud. Kakashi closed his eye.

"What?" He said evenly.

"Um…She sort of found some books in the library about the Uchiha clan. And some stuff about our last Chuunin Exam…" Kakashi frowned, turning to Dumbledore.

"This library shouldn't have books like that." He said.

"I checked the inventory after the fire." Sasuke looked out the window. "Those books were not on the list."

"Then how did they get there?" Kakashi mumbled, musing to himself. "That's another thing I'll look into. In any case, you were right to destroy that information. Though next time, perhaps you should do it in a less widely destructive manner." He said, giving Sasuke a patronizing pat on the head.

"Did you find out anything on those shinobi we saw in the forest?" Sakura asked, changing the subject.

"Not yet. I have an ANBU team searching the forest." He said with a glance to the window. "I just came to let you know I was back in the area. And then I heard about your little adventure." He sighed. "Try not to do it again." Sasuke frowned.

"Kakashi-sensei…what about Umbridge?"

"What about her?"

"She's already sticking her fat face into this." Naruto said. "That bitch will figure it out in no time."

"Language Naruto…" Kakashi said, shaking his head.

"I will take care of Professor Umbridge." Dumbledore assured them. "Don't worry about anything besides accomplishing your mission."

"Thank you. Now, you should get back. It's getting late." The three turned to leave. "Be careful."

On their way back to the common room, team 7 passed the charred remains of the library, which was off limits to students until the 'crime was solved' and the library was repaired. Without a word to each other they ducked under the barrier and entered the dark room.

"What are we doing here guys?" Naruto asked. Sakura poked around the piles of smoke damaged books. Sasuke went to the place where he started the fire. Something caught his eye directly on the point of origin. It was a small scrap of paper that miraculously survived the intense heat. It was trapped under a charred piece of wood, but seemed to be flawless. He gently tugged at it until it was free. And then he dropped it from his hand, his eyes losing focus, staring into space.

"Sasuke? What's wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah? What's got into you all of a sudden?" They walked to Sasuke's side. Sakura bent down and picked up the scrap.

"Oh God." She hissed.

It was a yellowing parchment.

With the insignia of the Hidden Sound Village scribbled on it.


	12. The Fateful DA Meeting

Harry Potter and the Legend of the Shinobi

A/N: Sorry for the wait/the length of this chapter. I just couldn't get the beginning right and I'm still not really happy with it but I'm leaving for England in an hour and fifteen minutes. That's also the reason for the length. I just don't have time to write a long, fluffy chapter like I wanted to. Also forgive mistakes I didn't really proofread. I'll check it when I get back on July 29. So no updates until then. But you can stalk me on livejournal and see how I'm doing. Link's on my profile. Happy reading!

Chapter Twelve

The Fateful DA Meeting

The meetings of Dumbledore's Army, as they had come to call it, became increasingly important to the increasingly paranoid shinobi, who were convinced that a massive attack on the castle was going to commence any day now.

Sasuke began carrying around nearly his full arsenal of kunai, hidden in various places on his body. His teammates had taken to walking several feet from him to avoid being poked by the knives. Sakura had begun taking a very serious interest in the whereabouts of both her team and their wizard companions. If she couldn't sense their presence for even a minute she started to vividly imagine their horrible deaths, and would proceed to think up ingenious yet sadistic ways to avenge them. Even Naruto was quieter than usual. During class he would envision himself defeating many sound shinobi single handedly. This resulted in him failing most of these classes, relying on Hermione and Sakura to help him stay afloat.

The news of a reprieve came one breakfast two days before the fall term ended.

"We're all going to Ron's house for the holidays." Harry informed them. "What are you guys doing? Staying here?" Sakura shrugged.

"I guess so. We don't really have any plans." _But how will we continue guarding them if they're thousands of miles away. _A foot came down on hers under the table. She bit back a surprised cry and glared at Sasuke, who was sitting next to her. He looked at her pointedly and indicated the door with a nod of his head. Then he glared at Naruto and nodded towards the door again. With that, Sasuke abruptly rose and wordlessly left the Great Hall. Sakura gathered that all the glaring and nodding meant that they should both meet him in a few minutes. Under the table she grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and wrote the message on the piece of paper, slipping it in Naruto's hand. Then she too left the Hall without another word. Harry and Ron stared at Naruto in confusion while Hermione glanced worriedly after Sakura and Sasuke. Naruto gave them a huge smile after reading Sakura's note.

"Ah, sorry about them. They're just distracted because of…the vacation coming up! Yeah…They're all worried about all the work they have left to do…I should go check on them!" Naruto rose and left the Hall, waving back at the wizards with a huge smile. He found Sasuke and Sakura standing off to one side of the door, waiting for him. "Hey! What the heck was that all about? I had to make up a lie on the spot and you know I'm not so good at that!"

"Sorry." Sakura apologized, without any real emotion in her voice. Naruto glared at her. Sasuke shrugged. "You made up a fair one at least, right?" Naruto nodded and Sakura looked slightly relieved.

"But it was hard!"

"Hello!" Sasuke brought their attention back to the matter at hand. He basked in the light of his teammates' complete attention for a moment before speaking again. "Anyways, Kakashi told me that for the Christmas break we're going back to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix thing and the wizards are going back to Ron's house, as they just said, and they'll be sufficiently protected there." Sakura raised her eyebrows at Sasuke.

"When did he tell you this?" She asked.

"Last Friday."

"Where were we?"

"You and Naruto were fighting and walked out before he could stop you."

"Oh…" She and Naruto exchanged a sheepish glance. Sasuke sighed heavily, walking away.

"Idiots…" He mumbled under his breath.

"Hey!" Sakura chased after him, whacking him on the back of the head. Sasuke gave her an abused look and it was Naruto's turn to follow after his teammates muttering "Idiots…"

That night was another DA meeting. Being so close to the holidays combined with the cuteness of the patronuses they were conjuring gave the entire room a cheery feel. Harry watched with acute interest as the girl he had loved for years giggled at her patronus before it vanished into a cloud of pearly white smoke. Naruto snuck up behind Harry with a huge grin on his face.

"You like her." He said in a singsong voice. Harry immediately turned bright red.

"I do not." He adamantly denied. Naruto shook his head.

"Come on. It's pretty obvious. So what's her name?"

"Cho…" Harry drifted off, watching her. Naruto's grin widened.

"I think she likes you back. Every time you look away she glances over." Harry turned an even brighter red, something he thought was impossible.

"Really?" He asked, clearing his throat and straightening his posture.

"Yeah, go for it."

"I don't know if-"

"Um…Harry?" While they had been talking the very girl they had been discussing had come up to them and tapped Harry on the shoulder. He jumped, whirling around to face her.

"Oh Hi." He said his mouth suddenly very, very dry.

"Do you mind if I talk to you a minute after everyone leaves?" She said, her dark hair falling in front of her eyes as she looked at the floor.

"S-sure. That's f-fine." Everyone was filing out of the room besides Harry and Cho, and Sasuke and Sakura, who waved the others on. Naruto gave Harry the thumbs up as he left. The two remaining shinobi stepped into the shadows just outside the room, giving Harry his privacy.

"Oh my God, they're going to kiss!" Sakura squealed as she watched their faces get closer and closer under the mistletoe. She slipped out of the doorway just before they connected and felt a hand on her wrist. Sasuke gave a gentle tug and momentum swung her into him. Their lips connected for one brief shining moment before they pulled apart. Sakura ran her tongue over her tingling lips and appraised Sasuke with sparkling eyes. "What was that for?" She said jokingly. Sasuke was bright red, refusing to meet her eyes. He shrugged in response to her question.

"I guess I've been waiting to do that for a while." He said, with a half smile. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

But just before their lips could connect again a silvery senbon embedded itself in the wood between their faces.

4


End file.
